overpunctuate
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To punctuate excessively.
Example Sentences
- "Do not overpunctuate; it is much easier than to underpunctuate. The general tendency nowadays is to make punctuation less copious than formerly."
- "In such works it is of the utmost importance to leave no room for doubt as to the meaning of the text, and the policy, in consequence, is to overpunctuate rather than not to punctuate enough."
- "Do not overpunctuate. But do not underpunctuate. Make your sentence constructions so clear that it will be possible for you to keep punctuation at a minimum."
- "If there is any tendency in punctuation, it is to overpunctuate rather than underpunctuate in order to keep fairly involved sentences moving smoothly."
- "Under those circumstances, I felt obliged to use every device I could imagine to assist them in reading their lines, and sprinkled punctuation amid my prose like a glutton sugaring strawberries. It helped, and I tend to overpunctuate to this day. I practice overpunctuation, although I do not defend it. But the word processor, I believe, will in time change our perceptions of what constitutes overpunctuation.[…]I myself overpunctuate wildly, probably for the reason I pointed out earlier, although it may only be that my genes are badly tangled or something of that general sort."
- "Students may overpunctuate rather than underpunctuate sentences. Because they feel that sentences must be punctuated, students have a tendency to insert commas randomly through sentences."
Etymology
From over- + punctuate.
Word Breakdown
- Prefix: over