Full stop

A full stop or period, also called a full point, is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of several different types of sentences in English and several other languages. A period consists of a small dot placed at the end of a line of text, thus: "." (sans quotes).

Related Topics:
Punctuation - English

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The term full stop is generally differentiated from that of period in contexts where both might be used by the fact that a full stop is specifically referential of a delimiting punctuation, while a period involves any appropriately sized and placed dot in English language text, to include indicating abbreviation, but excluding certain special uses of dots at the bottom of a line of text like ellipses.

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Punctuation - Ellipses

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The term full stop is also used, vernacularly, to terminate a phrase or thought with finality and emphasis, as in "I told him I was leaving him, full stop." The term period is used in the same sense in North America. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair, however, used the term 'period' in an answer in response to a question over the UK's EU budgetary rebate during Prime Minister's Question Time in the UK Parliament on 8 June 2005: "Will the Prime Minister tell us if the UK rebate is negotiable? The Prime Minister: The UK rebate will remain and we will not negotiate it away. Period". (from Hansard)

Related Topics:
Tony Blair - EU - Prime Minister's Question Time - Hansard

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