Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Denoting
excitement ,surprise , orshock . - noun chess Indicates a good move.
- noun botany Placed after a
herbarium abbreviation to indicate that the mentionedmaterial held there has been examined directly by theauthor . - noun computing A
Boolean negation , the notoperator , serving toinvert thetruth value of what follows. - noun computing Formerly used as a
separator betweenhostnames in ane-mail address for the purpose ofrouting a message (called bang path notation). - noun computing, IRC Used as a separator between a user's
nickname andident . - noun mathematics
factorial
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
May derive from a Latin Io, with the I written over the o, placed at the end of an exclamation to mark it as such. The Io may either be an abbreviation for interiectiō ("interjection"), or else the interjection Iō ("hey!").
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Examples
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vanishedone commented on the word !
If wordie.org/words/? didn't produce a 500 Application Error, we could recreate the famous correspondence attributed to Victor Hugo (and reportedly also to Oscar Wilde, 'and thereby perhaps apocryphal').
September 24, 2008
bilby commented on the word !
?
December 11, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word !
!
December 12, 2008
reesetee commented on the word !
.
December 13, 2008
kewpid commented on the word !
“Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.�?
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
January 5, 2009
taciturnyetprolix commented on the word !
I've always had a visceral disdain for exclamation marks.
January 5, 2009
yarb commented on the word !
I do think they're a sign of bad writing, but there are exceptions. Ford Madox Ford uses them about 10 times a page to punctuate interior monologue. Takes some getting used to but in the end it works.
January 6, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word !
... "phallic"??
May 29, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word !
¡
September 23, 2011
fbharjo commented on the word !
I proclaim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (alter(altar)-ego(egadsjjjjjjjj(there's the hook and the catch???(Is it called a weir?( Where's the wattle?)))
September 23, 2011
hernesheir commented on the word !
Century Dictionary informs us that the character "!" is called an admirative.
September 23, 2011
Dan337 commented on the word !
Good point. (Sorry—couldn’t resist.) When exclaiming not admiration but disgust (or just clearing one’s throat), one might therefore prefer to employ a probang.
September 23, 2011