Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

comma

/ˈkɔmə/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 3.27 in modern English

Syllables
com-ma
IPA
/ˈkɔmə/
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.

noun

A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark.

noun

Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia.

noun

A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.

noun

A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.

noun

In Ancient Greek rhetoric, a short clause, something less than a colon, originally denoted by comma marks. In antiquity it was defined as a combination of words having no more than eight syllables in all. It was later applied to longer phrases, e.g. the Johannine comma.

noun

A brief interval.

verb

To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas.

Transitive verb

Example Sentences

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep-? Proto-Hellenic *kopt͏̌ō Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō) Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Hellenic *-mə Ancient Greek -μᾰ (-mă) Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma) Latin commabor. English comma From Latin comma, from Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma), from κόπτω (kóptō, “to cut”).

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: comma, κόμμα

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈkɔmə/
  • British English: /ˈkɒmə/

Usage

Inflected Forms

commas (plural) commata (plural, rare) commaes (obsolete, plural) come (alternative, obsolete) commas (present, singular) commaing (participle, present) commaed (participle, past) commaed (past) comma'd (participle, past) comma'd (past)

Derived Forms

commaless commalike commify myocomma

Phrases

comma bacillus comma butterfly comma category comma lichen comma-point comma queen comma splice decimal comma

Frequently Paired Words

apostrophe curly brackets brace square bracket bracket colon dash ellipsis

Synonyms

scratch comma virgule virgula come comma-point comma butterfly polygonia comma

Rhymes With

obama drama mama lama momma mamma osama sama rama yokohama llama saitama

Questions

How do you pronounce comma?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈkɔmə/.
What does comma mean?
The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
Where does comma come from?
It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce comma

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “comma”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈkɔmə/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “comma”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “comma” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.