Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Keyboard Symbols - Names, Meanings and their Usage

Look around your keyboard. Can you find the circumflex symbol? How about the tilde? Or let's try a little bit more interesting: the cat symbol?

Here is a list of the common symbols you can find in your computer keyboard and how they are called by many of us. Most of them I bet you already know, but there are other names other people have called them, both common and rare.



exclamation mark !
An exclamation mark is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end of a sentence.

Common Names: exclamation point; screamer; bang; ball-bat; not; pling; shriek; screech.
Rare: factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey; wham; eureka; spark-spot; soldier; control; gasper; startler.

quotation marks "
Quotation marks are used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, a phrase or a word. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark.

Common Names: inverted commas; double quote; quote; speech marks.
Rare: literal mark; double-glitch; snakebite; dirk; rabbit-ears; double prime.

number sign #
The number sign is generally used as an abbreviation for the word "number".

Common Names: number; pound; hash; sharp; crunch ; hex; mesh.
Rare: grid; cross­hatch; oc­to­thorpe; flash; square, pig-pen; tic­tac­toe; scratchmark; thud; thump; splat.

dollar sign $
The dollar sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate a unit of currency.

Common Names: dollar.
Rare: currency symbol; buck; cash; bling; string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of ASCII ESC); ding; cache; big money.

percent sign %
The percent sign is the symbol used to indicate a percentage (that the preceding number is divided by one hundred).

Common Names: percent; modulo; grapes.
Rare: double-oh-seven.

ampersand &
An ampersand represents the conjunction "and".

Common Names: amp; amper; and; and sign.
Rare: address (from C); reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from sh(1) ); pretzel.

apostrophe '
The apostrophe mainly marks omissions, and assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns.

Common Names: apostrophe; single quote; quote.
Rare: prime; glitch; tick; irk; pop; spark.

parenthesis ( )
Parenthesis are used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text.

Common Names round brackets, parenthesis.
Rare: so/al­ready; lparen/rparen; wax/wane; par­en­this­ey/un­par­en­this­ey.

asterisk *

Common Names: asterisk; star; splat.
Rare: wildcard; gear; dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob.

plus sign +
Denotes an addition operation.

Common Names: plus; add.
Rare: cross; intersection.

comma ,
The comma is used principally to separate things.

Common Name: comma.
Rare: cedilla; tail.

hyphen -
A hyphen is used both to join words and to separate syllables of a single word.

Common Names: hyphen; dash; minus.
Rare: worm; option; dak; bithorpe.

period .

Common Names: period; dot; full stop; point; decimal point.
Rare: radix point; spot.

slash /

Common Names: slash; stroke; slant; forward slash; oblique dash.
Rare: diagonal; solidus; over; divided by slak; virgule; separatrix; scratch comma; whack; slat.

colon :

Common Name: colon.
Rare: dots; two-spot.

semicolon ;

Common Names: semicolon; semi.
Rare: weenie; hybrid, pit-thwong.

angle brackets < >

Common Names: angle brackets; diamond brackets; less than/greater than.
Rare: from/towards; read from/write to; suck/blow; in/out; crunch/zap (all from UNIX); tic/tac;

equals sign =

Common Names: equals; gets; takes; is.
Rare: quadrathorpe; half-mesh.

question mark ?
Denotes an interrogative sentence or an unknown data.

Common Names: interrogation point; question point; query; question mark; ques.
Rare: quiz; whatmark; what; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback; eroteme.

@ at sign
The at sign denotes an abbreviation of the word 'at'.

Common Names: at sign; at; strudel.
Rare: each; vortex; whorl; whirlpool; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage.

square brackets [ ]

Common Names: square bracket; box bracket; bracket; brack­et/un­brack­et.
Rare: square­/­un­square; U turn/U turn back.

backslash \
Common Names: backslash, hack, whack; escape (from C/UNIX); reverse slash; slosh; backslant; backwhack.
Rare: bash; reverse slant; reversed virgule; backslat.

caret ^
Common Names: circumflex; hat; control; uparrow; caret.
Rare: xor sign, chevron; shark or shark-fin; to the ("to the power of"); fang; pointer (in Pascal).

underscore _

Common Names: underline; underscore; underbar; understrike; low line; low dash.
Rare: score; backarrow; skid; flatworm.

back quote `

Common Names: backquote; left quote; left single quote; open quote; grave accent; grave.
Rare: backprime; backspark; unapostrophe; birk; blugle; back tick; back glitch; push; quasiquote.

braces { }

Common Names: squiggly brackets; squiggly braces; curly brackets; curly braces.
Rare: brace/unbrace; curly/un­curly; leftit/rytit; squirrellies;

bar |

Common Names: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar.
Rare: gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from UNIX); spike.

tilde ~

Common Names: squiggle; twiddle; not.
Rare: sqiggle; approx; wiggle; swung dash; enyay.


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