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The exclamation mark (also known as exclamation point in American English) is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show . The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence. For example: "Watch out!". Similarly, a bare exclamation mark (with nothing before or after) is frequently used in . Additionally, the exclamation mark is commonly used in writing to make a character seem as though they are shouting, excited, or surprised.
The exclamation mark originated from the Latin word Io, or a shortening of a different word, which was used to express joy at the end of sentences. It is thought to have evolved into a shape resembling an above a dot. The use of the exclamation mark as punctuation, often attributed to Alpoleio da Urbisaglia in the 14th century, was made because da Urbisaglia was annoyed at the reading of emotionally charged script in a flat tone. The symbol he made resembled the modern exclamation mark and indicated strong emotions such as admiration and surprise.
Other uses include:
Its evolution as punctuation can be traced back to the 14th century, in the Italian Renaissance, when it was invented by Italian scholar Alpoleio da Urbisaglia.
Many older or portable did not have the exclamation mark. Instead, the user typed a period and then backspaced and overtyped an apostrophe.
In the 1950s, secretarial dictation and typesetting manuals in America referred to the mark as "bang", (reprint perhaps from comic books – where the ! appeared in dialogue bubbles to represent a gun being fired, although the nickname probably emerged from letterpress printing. This "bang" usage is behind the names of the interrobang, an unconventional typographic character, and the shebang, a feature of Unix computer systems.
In the printing world, the exclamation mark can be called a screamer, a gasper, a slammer, a dog's cock, or a startler.: "Everyone knows the exclamation mark – or exclamation point, as it is known in America. It comes at the end of a sentence, is unignorable and hopelessly heavy-handed, and is known in the newspaper world as a screamer, a gasper, a startler or (sorry) a dog's cock."
In hacker culture, the exclamation mark is called "bang", "shriek", or, in the British slang known as Commonwealth Hackish, "pling". For example, the password communicated in the spoken phrase "Your password is em-zero-pee-aitch-bang-en-three" ("em-nought-pee-aitch-pling-en-three" in Commonwealth Hackish) is m0ph!n3.
Informally, exclamation marks may be repeated for additional emphasis ("That's great!!!"), but this practice is generally considered unacceptable in formal prose.
The exclamation mark is sometimes used in conjunction with the question mark. This can be in protest or astonishment ("Out of all places, the squatter-camp?!"); a few writers replace this with a single, unconventional punctuation mark, the interrobang, which is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark.
Overly frequent use of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, as it distracts the reader and decreases the mark's significance.
Some authors, most notably Tom Wolfe, are known for their unashamedly liberal use of the exclamation mark. In , the very frequent use of exclamation marks is common—see Comics, below.
For information on the use of spaces after an exclamation mark, see the discussion of spacing after a period.
Several studies have shown that women use exclamation marks more than men do. One study suggests that, in addition to other uses, exclamation marks may also function as markers of friendly interaction, for example, by making "Hi!" or "Good luck!" seem friendlier than simply "Hi." or "Good luck." (with periods). However, use of exclamation marks in contexts that are not unambiguously positive can be misinterpreted as indicating hostility.
In English writing and often subtitles, a (!) symbol (an exclamation mark within parentheses) implies that a character has made an obviously sarcasm comment e.g.: " Ooh, a sarcasm detector. That's a really useful invention(!)" It is also used to indicate surprise at one's own experience or statement.
As in British English, a bracketed exclamation mark may be used to indicate irony or surprise at a statement: Dice que esta noche no va a salir de fiesta (!), 'He said that he's not going to a party tonight(!).' Such use is not matched by an inverted opening exclamation mark.
It is further used in parentheses, (᥄), after a sentence or phrase to indicate irony or sarcasm: ᤖᤥᤂᤌ ᤔᤚᤗ ᤐᤤ ᤊᤇ ᤃᤦᤄ (᥄) (Rōkhatha maṡala pai yancha gaugha (!), 'You did a very good job — Not!').
The exclamation mark has sometimes been used as a phonetic symbol to indicate that a consonant is ejective. More commonly, this is represented by an apostrophe, or a superscript glottal stop symbol ().
In linear logic, the exclamation mark denotes one of the modalities that control weakening and contraction.
Many computer languages using C-style syntax use "!" for logical negation; means "not A", and means "A is inequation to B". This negation principle has spread to ordinary language; for example, the word "!clue" is used as a synonym for "no-clue" or "clueless".
The symbol in formal logic for negation is but, as this symbol is not present as standard on most keyboards, the C convention has spread informally to other contexts.Early e-mail systems also used the exclamation mark as a separator character between hostnames for routing information, usually referred to as "bang path" notation.
In the IRC protocol, a user's nickname and Identifier are separated by an exclamation mark in the hostmask assigned to him or her by the server.
In UNIX scripting (typically for UNIX shell or Perl), "!" is usually used after a "#" in the first line of a script, the interpreter directive, to tell the OS what program to use to run the script. is usually called a "hash-bang" or shebang. A similar convention for PostScript files calls for the first line to begin with , called "percent-bang".
An exclamation mark starts Command history expansions in many such as bash and tcsh where executes the previous command and refers to all the arguments from the previous command.
Acorn RISC OS uses filenames starting with pling to create an application directory: for instance, a file called !Run is executed when the folder containing it is double-clicked (holding down shift prevents this). There is also !Boot (executed the first time the application containing it comes into view of the filer), !Sprites (icons), !Help, and others.
In APL, is used for the factorial of x (backwards from math notation), and also for the binomial coefficient: means or .
BBC BASIC used the exclamation mark as an indirection operator, equivalent to PEEK and POKE of four at once.
BCPL, the precursor of C, used "!" for pointer and array indirection: is equivalent to in C, and is equivalent to in C.
In the Xbase family of programming languages, which includes dBase and FoxPro, an exclamation mark, when used as part of an expression, indicates negation. For example, != means "not equal to". At the start of a line of code, it is a synonym for RUN (which executes an external program).
In the Haskell programming language, "!" is used to express strictness.
In the Kotlin programming language, "!!" ("double-bang") is the not-null assertion operator, used to override Void safety so as to allow a null pointer exception.
In the ML programming language (including Standard ML and OCaml), "!" is the operator to get the value out of a "reference" data structure.
In the Raku programming language, the "!" twigil is used to access private attributes or methods in a class (like or ).
In the Scheme, Julia, and Ruby programming languages, "!" is conventionally the suffix for functions and special forms that mutate their input.
In the Swift programming language, a type followed by "!" denotes an "implicitly unwrapped optional", an option type where the compiler does not enforce safe unwrapping. The "!" operator "force unwraps" an option type, causing an error if it is nil.
In Geek Code version 3, "!" is used before a letter to denote that the geek refuses to participate in the topic at hand. In some cases, it has an alternate meaning, such as G! denoting a geek of no qualifications, !d denoting not wearing any clothes, P! denoting not being allowed to use Perl, and so on. They all share some negative connotations, however.
is used to denote changed lines in [[|diff]] output in the . In the , changes to a single line are denoted as an addition and deletion.
In massively multiplayer online (MMO) games such as World of Warcraft, an exclamation mark hovering over a character's head is often used to indicate that they are offering a quest for the player to complete.
In Dota 2, an exclamation mark is shown above the head of a unit if it is killed by means not granting enemies experience or gold (if it is "denied").
In the 2005 arcade dance simulation game In the Groove 2, there is a song titled "!" (also referred to as "bang") by the artist Onyx.
In fandom and fanfiction, ! is used to signify a defining quality in a character, usually signifying an alternative interpretation of a character from a canonical work. Examples of this would be "Romantic!Draco" or "Vampire!Harry" from the Harry Potter fandom. It is also used to clarify the current persona of a character with multiple identities or appearances, such as to distinguish "Armor!Alphonse Elric" from "Human!Al" in a work based on Fullmetal Alchemist. The origin of this usage is unknown, although it is hypothesized to have originated with certain Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures; for example, "Football Player! Leonardo", "Rockstar! Raphael", and "Breakdancer! Michelangelo".
Comic book writer Elliot S! Maggin once accidentally signed his name with an exclamation due to the habit of using them when writing comic scripts; it became his professional name from then on.
Similarly, comic artist Scott Shaw! has used the exclamation point after his name throughout his career.In comic books and comics in general, a large exclamation point is often used near or over a character's head to indicate surprise. A question mark can similarly be used to indicate confusion.
In 2008, the pop-punk band Panic! at the Disco dropped the exclamation point in its name; this became the "most-discussed topic on fan message boards around the world". In 2009, the exclamation mark was re-inserted following the band's split.
The band Bomb the Music Industry! utilizes an exclamation mark in its name, as well as several album and song titles and promotional material. Examples include their songs "(Shut) Up The Punx!!!" and the album .
American musician Pink stylizes her stage name "P!NK", and uses three exclamation points in the subtitle of her 2010 release, Greatest Hits... So Far!!!.
Some include an exclamation mark:
Some scripts have their own exclamation mark:
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