* ⸘: Superimposition of ¡ and ¿.
* ‽: Superimposition of ! and ?.

Encloses an emphatic question in some languages.


⸘En serio‽

(uncommon) encloses an emphatic question


Lenticular brackets
lenticular bracket#English


May be used to enclose a quotation in Finnish and Swedish, in place of the more usual ” ”.

Curved single quotation marks and apostrophes

Straight single quotation mark and apostrophe


''1'' is text; 1 without quotation marks is a number.

programming language
programming language

(programming) Encloses a string literal in some programming languages.


An early typographic substitute for › ‹, which were not widely available in metal type.


(textual criticism, palaeography) Denotes conjectured or emendated characters because the text was transmitted wrongly or just broken away.


Encloses a quotation in CJK languages, specifically an embedded (inner) quotation where corner brackets are the usual quotation marks.


(Taiwan) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


Do "not" open the door.


For quotations using this term, see Citations:” ”.


An early typographic substitute for » «, which were not widely available in metal type outside of France.


(Mainland China, vertical writing) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


1905, https://web.archive.org/web/20201203234251/http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/mgda/waei/topics/jokun.html
和英字典ノ著者「ジェー、シー、ヘボン」ガ多年我國ニ在リ文化ノ進歩ニ貢献シタル所多キハ勿論
The author of the Japanese-English dictionary, J. C. Hepburn, has stayed at our country for many years, and it goes without saying that he has made much contribution to the advancement of our culture…

日本海軍、市丸海軍少将、書ヲ「フランクリン ルーズベルト」君ニ致ス。

Rear Admiral R. Ichimaru of the Japanese Navy sends this note to Franklin Roosevelt.

(obsolete) In kanji-katakana mixed writing before World War II, encloses 外来語 (gairaigo, “foreign loanwords”) written in katakana to mark them apart from ordinary katakana portions of the text.


A British substitute for « », which were not widely available in metal type when quotation marks were introduced from France.


See " " for a fuller list of usage.

Encloses a quotation, title, ironic comment (scare quotes), nickname, gloss, or the mention of a word (e.g. ‘cheese’ derives from Old English ċīese.).


(Mainland China, horizontal writing) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation. The outer quotation is enclosed with “ ”.


(Brazil) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.

(Portugal) Encloses a doubly embedded quotation.


John said, “Run!”

For quotations using this term, see Citations:“ ”.


Encloses a quotation, title, ironic comment (scare quotes), nickname, gloss, or the mention of a word


(Mainland China, horizontal writing) Encloses a quotation.


(dated) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


(Portugal) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


At a sharp bend in the river, the little walled-town of Shih-shou Hsien, on the slopes of several little wooded hills, two of which are crowned by temples (430 ft. high) ; this is the « chief-place » of a district in the prefecture of Ching-chou Fu.

1912, Northern China, The Valley of the Blue River, Korea (in English), Hachette & Company, →OCLC, page 400:


`lcub` `rcub`

We can write la{t,d}er for the conflated pronunciation of ladder and latter in American English. This may instead be written ⫽laDer⫽, where ⫽D⫽ is the archiphoneme {t, d}, or with both conventions for {laDer}.

(phonology) Encloses morphophonemic transcription; especially when presented as sets of phonemes rather than as single symbols for archiphonemes.


⌊3.14⌋ = 3

⌊−4.28⌋ = −5

(mathematics) Indicates the use of floor function, rounds down a number to the nearest integer.


⌈1.414⌉ = 2

⌈−1.618⌉ = −1

(mathematics) Indicates the use of ceiling function, rounds up a number to the nearest integer.


The second /l/ in the English word "little" is actually pronounced [ɫ̩], not that people usually notice.

(linguistics) Encloses phonemic transcription.


`lowbar` `lowbar`

There's a scene in _Return of the Jedi_ where some little humanoid makes some remarks in an unidentified language.

1999 December 16, Dorothy J Heydt, “Re: Yourself in your work was Re: Colons”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet; in English), message-ID <FMuBI8.88w@kithrup.com>

So far, there's very little in the WoD that strikes me as Marvelish. I don't mind the occasional "returns from the dead" kind of story, but it seems to be looking like _every_ Antideluvian has faked/will fake their own deaths at one time or another.

2000 March 20, Webwalker [username], “Re: [Vampire] Ravnos”, in alt.games.whitewolf (Usenet; in English):

You could have asked: is there a reason this easy patch was not applied, either on IRC or private mail by me. You did write a comment on IRC and I did see it. Problem is that you did not highlight me _and_ you did not wait for an answer.

2006, "Frans Pop", Re: Bug#378404: installation guide: one more additional proposal (on newsgroup linux.debian.maint.boot)

(Internet slang) Encloses plain text that would be underlined or italicized if formatting was available.


This is a *big* problem.

2020 May 26, “The White House is getting *very* worried about the Senate majority”, in CNN (in English), retrieved 2020-10-02:

(Internet) Encloses a word or phrase to indicate emphasis; especially, used in plain-text contexts to simulate italics or boldface.

I have something for you! *gives her a cookie*

stares absentmindedly at the wall*

facepalm*

internal screaming*

[King Knight defeats Specter Knight.] / Specter Knight: '*PANT* YOU ARE IMPUDENT, BUT QUICK ON YOUR FEET... INTERESTING.'

2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight: King of Cards (in English), Nintendo 3DS, level/area: Spectral Ravine:

(chiefly Internet slang) Encloses an interpretation; an action described as if it were actually happening; in English, typically written in the third person.


Encloses an exclamation in some languages.


¡Ditxós qui sab estimarla! ¡Benhaurat aquell en quin cor brilla encesa la vivificant y pura flama de la fé!

Lucky is he who can love her! Blessed is he in whose heart there shines the life-giving and pure flame of faith!

occasionally encloses an exclamation in modern Catalan; at other times, a lone exclamation mark is used at the end with nothing at the beginning of the exclamatory phrase


encloses an exclamation in Spanish; equivalent in English and many other languages: !


occasionally encloses a question in modern Catalan; at other times, a lone question mark is used at the end with nothing at the beginning of the question


¿Cómo estás?

Si tú fuiste, ¿a qué hora llegaste?

If you went, at what time did you arrive?

encloses a question in Spanish; equivalent in English and many other languages: ?


`lsqb` `rsqb`

used when omitting a section in quoted text

Encloses a number of changes in quoted text.

(papyrology, epigraphy) Restored writing that was present in the original text but has since become damaged or broken away.

(textual criticism, palaeography) Denotes a text deemed interpolated.


([abc])([def]) — \2 matches the 2nd subexpression

(regular expressions) Defines a marked subexpression, to be matched using the backslash (\1, \2, etc.)


ရက်ပေါင်း (၁၀၀) အလွန်
rakpaung: (100) a.lwan
100 days later

sometimes used to enclose numbers to distinguish from letters


他（）的！

(Internet slang, with no content inside) Used to censor vulgar, profane or sensitive words or characters. Compare x in Latin alphabet. A formal way to censor words in Chinese is using × instead.


(Internet slang, with no content inside) Used to censor vulgar, profane or sensitive words or characters. A formal way to censor words in Japanese is using × or ○ instead. Compare 自主規制 in Japanese and x in Latin alphabet.


တ္ၚဲကောန်ဂကူမန်မရနုက်ကဵု (၆၈) ဝါ

sometimes used to enclose digits to distinguish from letters


Encloses titles of books when embedded within a book title.


(North Korea) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


(vertical script) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.


`num` `num`

Happy birthday to you. #

(television) Encloses subtitled text that is sung or in a singsong intonation.


`num` `num`

The matching pair was adopted because Chinese texts customarily do not use space to split words.

#這是一個主題標簽#

#这是一个主题标签#

(Internet, Mainland China) Wraps a piece of text, indicating a hashtag on social media.


A flock of sparrows

Encloses supplemental information when the original text continues afterwards; similar to ( ).


(linguistics) Encloses morphophonemic transcription.


`vert` `vert`

The absolute value of minus three is three.

For x equals one, one and y equals four, five, the absolute value of the quantity x minus y is the square root of (open parentheses) the quantity one minus four squared plus the quantity one minus five squared (close parentheses) or five.

|A|


`vert` `vert`

(linguistics) Encloses diaphonemic transcription.


`lt` `gt` `lt`/ `gt`

<p>This is a new paragraph.'''

[written by Mark Zuckerberg at the start of the movie, after he was dumped by his girlfriend Erica]

<p><i>9:48pm'. The truth is that she has a nice face. I need to do something to take my mind off her. Easy enough, except I need an idea.'

(computing) Used in HTML and XML to open and close an element.


(programming) Encloses a multi-line comment in some programming, markup and query languages.


`lt`!-- --`gt`

<!-- Note: I don't understand how this code works. -->

(computing) Encloses a multi-line comment in some markup languages, including HTML, XML, and SGML.


= non-breaking space

(computing) Encloses a character entity reference, which is displayed as a certain character in HTML and XML.


`lt` `gt`

having now watched it I just have one thing to say... <grin> So who's got the bollocks to do some cosplay with me then? ^_^

2002 January 14, Stuart Dawson, “Re: This made me look at YATA in a whole new light.. o_o”, in uk.media.animation.anime (Usenet; in English):

<SIGH> TAKE A LOOK AROUND THE MARKET SID. WHAT DO YOU SEE?

2010, Robin Etherington, The Diamond Egg of Wonders (Monkey Nuts; 1), Oxford, Oxon: David Fickling Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 8:

(comics, Internet slang) Synonym of * * (“encloses an interpretation, describes an action as if it were actually happening”)


`lt` /`gt`

<br/>

Unsupported titles/Enclosing less than greater than

(computing) Encloses a standalone XML tag. Compare < >.


Speaking of Illustrator -- you weren't, but I'm pretending -- the way I'm going about comic art is on the computer.

2001 February 7, pieceoftheuniverse, “Re: Help please?”, in rec.humor.oracle.d (Usenet; in English), message-ID <3a817466.2941062@spamkiller.sucknews.com>:

Alternative form of ( ) or — —. These are two sets of -- used to enclose parenthetical text, like two em dashes, especially when actual em dashes are not available.


(Internet slang) Used to quote a text/speech and express that the quotation is so absurd and commonly seen that it is deemed a "classic (典 (diǎn))" (hence enclosed by this pair of marks for book titles); also by extension used for general mocking.


ok_hand: = 👌

(Internet) In some social networks and forums, generates an emoji.


The Right Stuff (blog)
Triple parentheses

A practice started by the anti-Semitic podcast The Daily Shoah, hosted on the far-right blog The Right Stuff, with the claim that all Jewish surnames “echo” throughout history, reflecting alleged involvement in conspiracies.

"Hopefully /pol/ can be unanimous on this, and not disagree with it just to be ironic or edgy. "Just this once," wrote another user, who added that as much as he or she hated "agreeing with liberal[s]… they're right on this one. (((internet service providers))) will get way too much power if we let them."

2017 July 12, Brian Fung, “Even 4chan Is Opposing the Republican Plan for Net Neutrality”, in The Washington Post (in English):

Van Alphen’s account on Gab features a slew of bigoted posts written between 2016 and 2019. The most recent, posted more than a year ago, reads “HBO’s Watchmen is just as pozzed you’d expect given its (((writer))). […]”

2021 February 5, Ben Sales, “Neuroscientist Who Wrote Antisemitic and Racist Tweets Dies by Suicide”, in The Jerusalem Post (in English):

The first two charges against the applicant in the present case were that on or about 28 September 2016, contrary to section 127(1)(b) [of the Communications Act 2003], she had caused to be sent by means of a public electronic communications network, namely the internet, a message or matter that was grossly offensive, being a hyperlink on her blog to two performances of her antisemitic songs entitled "Nemo's Antisemitic Universe" and "(((Survivors)))".

Paragraph 7, Chabloz v Crown Prosecution Service [2019] EWHC 3094 (Admin)

(neo-Nazism and white supremacy, derogatory, offensive) Indicates somebody or something of Jewish background, or by extension anything thought to be insidiously controlled by Jews.


🗦Gasp!🗧 Your plan is too crazy to work!

(used in comics) Encloses an interjection, for emphasis.


Soon after his marriage, )))Oskar Schindler((( quit working for his father and took a series of jobs, including a position at Moravian Electrotechnic and the management of a driving school.

Anti-Defamation League
w:Anti-Defamation League

(neo-Nazism, offensive) Indicates somebody or something of pure non-Jewish background.


head

〔 〕 (English name tortoise shell bracket)


(papyrology, epigraphy) Encloses restored writing that was mistakenly omitted by the original scribe.


(mathematics) Indicates the use of nearest integer function.


(papyrology, epigraphy) Encloses amended writing where the original scribe has written something else erroneously.


(dated) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation, within « » for the outer quotation.


used for emphasis, or to set off metaphors, neologisms and the like.


You really thought that a graduation playlist would be safe from Miley's ~patriotic hit~? Think again!

2024 May 2, Nicole Pomarico, Kayleigh Roberts, Starr Bowenbank, “The Best Graduation Songs of All Time”, in Cosmopolitan:

Encloses a word or phrase to indicate disdain, mockery, snarkiness, or sarcasm being applied to it.


Trí troisciud immurco tantum la Colum Cilli in ando .i. aidchi Notlacc Steill .i. post .xii. nataleis & ochtmad (i)mbairgine Coluim Cilli i suidiu & seilind & bochtan ais maith, [...]

c. 815-840, “The Monastery of Tallaght”, in Edward J. Gwynn, Walter J. Purton, transl., Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 29, Royal Irish Academy, published 1911-1912, paragraph 68, pages 115-179:

However, Colum Cille recognized three fasts only in the year: the eve of Epiphany — that is, twelve days after Christmas, and the eighth part of Colum Cille’s loaf at that time, with a seland and a bochtan of good milk...

Hé férde tó Burch tó Sc̃e Petres mynstre and þǽr drohtnode .xii. geár

s.a. 1072, Peterborough Chronicle (in Old English):

He travelled to Bury, to the monastery of St Peter, and dwelled there for twelve years

And ſeke to this in the .xii. chapitre in the lettre D. […]

[1528?], Jherom Bruynswyke, translated by Laurence andrew, The Vertuose Boke of Distyllacyon of the Waters of All Maner of Herbes […] (in English), [London]:

[…] thoſe thynges, which ſhall be ſayd hereafter, in the .ix. the .x. yͤ .xiiii. and the .xviii. chapitres of this preſent dyccyon.

1535 July 27, [Marsilius of Padua], translated by Wyllyam Marshall, The Defence of Peace: […] (in English), [London]: […] Robert wyer / for wyllyam marshall, folio 65, recto:

The first duodecalogue, partely exciting partely directing a man in spirituall batail, explains how one must go about the strenuous acquisition of vertue (103) .. The second duodecalogue, "the .xii. wepenis of spiritual bataile" (109-13) gives practical help for the Christian pursuing the holy life

a. 1536, A Companion to Thomas More (in English), published 2009, page 107:

Shaxton. The .xiii. Article

1548, Robert Crowley, The confutation of the xiii articles [of] Nicolas Shaxton (in English):

And this volume thus finiſhed the laſt day of Aprill in this yeare of oure Lorde GOD .1557.

1557 April 30, Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], “To the Moste Hygh and Vertuous Princesse, Mary by the Grace of God, Quene of Englande, […]”, in Thomas More, edited by Wyllyam Rastell, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […] (in English), London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, →OCLC, signature .ii., verso:

a. 1560, Virgill, Thomas Phaër, transl., “The Ninth Booke of the Aeneidos of Uirgil”, in The Whole .xii. Bookes of the Æneidos of Virgill (in English), London: […] Wyllyam How, for Abraham Veale, published 1573:


The words \ˈmeɪri\ (Mary), \ˈmɛri\ (merry) and \ˈmæri\ (marry) are all pronounced /ˈmɛri/ in General American, whereas \ˈspɑː\ (spa) and \ˈspɑːr\ (spar) are both pronounced /ˈspɑː/ in Received Pronunciation.


♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪

Encloses subtitled text that is sung or in a singsong intonation.


We can write la{t,d}er for the conflated pronunciation of ladder and latter in American English. This may instead be written ⫽laDer⫽, where ⫽D⫽ is the archiphoneme {t, d}, or with both conventions for {laDer}.

(linguistics) Encloses morphophonemic transcription.