interrobang

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

The nonstandard punctuation mark ⟨‽⟩ (a combination of ⟨?⟩ and ⟨!⟩), which may be used at the end of a sentence to express excitement or disbelief, or to indicate that it is a rhetorical question.
A combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark; ⟨!?⟩ or ⟨?!⟩.

verb

To exclaim and question at the same time.

Pronunciation

/ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəʊˌbæŋ/ ĭn.tĕrʹə.băng' /ɪnˈtɛ.ɹəˌbæŋ/ /ɪnˈtɛ.ɹɔˌbæŋ/ [ɪnˈtə.ɹəˌbæŋ] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-interrobang.wav En-us-interrobang.ogg

Word forms

interrobang interrobangs interabang interrobanging interrobanged

Etymology

A blend of French (point d')interrogation (“question mark”) or the equivalent term in another Romance language + bang (“exclamation mark, exclamation point”), coined in a 1962 article in the journal TYPEtalks by American advertising executive Martin Kiehra Speckter (1915–1988), who invented the symbol.

Related words

apostrophe curly brackets brace square bracket bracket colon comma dash ellipsis exclamation mark fraction slash guillemet hyphen interpunct parentheses (US Canada) full stop period question mark quotation marks semicolon slash stroke space

Derived words

gnaborretni inverted interrobang

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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