\Punc`tu*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F. ponctuation.] (Gram.)
The act or art of punctuating or pointing a writing or
discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition
into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of
points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.
Note: Punctuation, as the term is usually understood, is
      chiefly performed with four points: the period [.], the
      colon [:], the semicolon [;], and the comma [,]. Other
      points used in writing and printing, partly rhetorical
      and partly grammatical, are the note of interrogation
      [?], the note of exclamation [!], the parentheses [()],
      the dash [--], and brackets []. It was not until the
      16th century that an approach was made to the present
      system of punctuation by the Manutii of Venice. With
      Caxton, oblique strokes took the place of commas and
      periods.