·

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See also: ◌̇, [U+2027 HYPHENATION POINT], [U+2219 BULLET OPERATOR], [U+22C5 DOT OPERATOR], [U+2022 BULLET], [U+A78F LATIN LETTER SINOLOGICAL DOT], [U+30FB KATAKANA MIDDLE DOT], [U+FF65 HALFWIDTH KATAKANA MIDDLE DOT], and [U+2E33 RAISED DOT]

· U+00B7, ·
MIDDLE DOT

[U+00B6]
Latin-1 Supplement ¸
[U+00B8]
U+22C5, ⋅
DOT OPERATOR

[U+22C4]
Mathematical Operators
[U+22C6]
· U+0387, ·
GREEK ANO TELEIA
Ά
[U+0386]
Greek and Coptic Έ
[U+0388]

Translingual

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Glyph origin

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Use as a multiplication or product operator is usually attributed to German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Symbol

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·

  1. (mathematics) The product operator.
    Synonyms: ×, *
    Antonyms: ÷, /
    7 · 8 = 56
  2. (in a few countries, such as the UK) A decimal point.
    3·14, £1,234·99
  3. (mathematics, vectors) The dot product operator.
    (1,2,5) · (3,4,−1) = 6
  4. (mathematics) Indicates what elements can vary.
    If we have f(x,y) we can analyze the properties of f(·,y) which is a function of x found by fixing a particular y.
  5. (chemistry) Indicates addition compounds.
    BF3·NH3
  6. (music) A pointing mark in Anglican chant, which indicates nonstandard places in the text where the chant should change note.
    Coordinate terms: |, ', :, *, , ,
  7. See for the middle dot used in Japanese katakana.
  8. See for the hyphenation point.

Usage notes

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  • (decimal point): Many Britons employ the American decimal point ⟨.⟩ owing to a general lack of support for the middot character on computers. It remains common in writing done by hand.
  • (addition compound): The IUPAC Recommendations for Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry[1] state: “Centre dots in formulae of (formal) addition compounds, including hydrates, adducts, clathrates, double salts and double oxides, separate the individual constituents. The dot is written in the centre of the line to distinguish it from a full stop (period).”

Synonyms

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  • (decimal point): ., ,

See also

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Punctuation

References

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  1. ^ Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry – IUPAC Recommendations 2005, 2005, p. 28, http://old.iupac.org/publications/books/rbook/Red_Book_2005.pdf

Ancient Greek

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Punctuation mark

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·

  1. The raised point, used like a semicolon.

See also

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Catalan

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Diacritical mark

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·

  1. middot, middle dot (a diacritical mark of the Latin script, called punt volat (flown dot) in Catalan, and found in the combination l·l to distinguish it from the digraph ll)

Usage notes

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  • In text messages or emails sometimes replaced with a full stop, ⟨.⟩.

Chinese

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Punctuation mark

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·

  1. Separates first and last names in personal names transcribed into Chinese characters.
    ともえひしげかつ·奧巴馬オバマともえひしげかつ·おくともみ  ―  Bālākè Àobāmǎ  ―  Barack Obama
  2. Separates the title of a literary work or collection from the title of a section.
    論語ろんご·ちょう [MSC, trad.]
    论语· [MSC, simp.]
    “Lúnyǔ Zǐzhāng” [Pinyin]
    Analects, "Zizhang"
    青少年せいしょうねん文庫ぶんこ·傲慢ごうまんあずか偏見へんけん [MSC, trad.]
    青少年せいしょうねんぶん·傲慢ごうまんあずかへん [MSC, simp.]
    “Qīngshàonián Wénkù Àomàn yǔ Piānjiàn” [Pinyin]
    Teenage Book Collection: Pride and Prejudice
  3. Separates the name of a fixed melody or format from the title of a poem or song.
    みず調ちょうあたま·明月めいげついくゆう [MSC, trad.]
    みず调歌头·明月めいげつ几时ゆう [MSC, simp.]
    “Shuǐdiào Gētóu Míngyuè Jǐshí Yǒu” [Pinyin]
    "Mid-Autumn Festival Night" to the tune of "Shuidiao Getou"
  4. Separates items in a list in titles.
    てん··ひと  ―  “Tiān Rén”  ―  Heaven, Earth, Man
  5. Separates the month from the day in events, commemorations, etc. named after dates, only used after January (いち ()), November (いちいち (yīyī)) and December (いち (yī'èr)) when hanzi are used.
    いち·はち事變じへんいち·はちこと  ―  yī-èrbā shìbiàn  ―  January 28 Incident
    9·11襲擊しゅうげき事件じけん9·11袭击事件じけん  ―  9-11 xíjī shìjiàn  ―  9/11 attacks
    きゅういちはち事變じへんきゅういち八事やごと  ―  jiǔ-yībā shìbiàn  ―  Mukden Incident (lit. September 18 Incident)

Usage notes

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  • Rarely used in general. Is used similarly to the Japanese symbol .

French

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Punctuation mark

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·

  1. (neologism, often proscribed) Used in certain forms of gender-neutral writing either before or around the feminine suffix, to avoid both the use of the masculine as the default form and the verbosity of writing out both the masculine and feminine forms.
    étudiant·esétudiantes et étudiantsfemale students and male students
    étudiant·e·sétudiantes et étudiantsfemale students and male students

Usage notes

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  • Another way to write such forms in gender-neutral writing is to give both the masculine and feminine forms connected by et, the form that goes first being determined by alphabetical order.
  • French-language authorities, such as the Académie française, usually strongly proscribe the practice.

Garo

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Letter

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·

  1. the raka

Greek

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Punctuation mark

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·

  1. (grammar) raised point (άνω τελεία (áno teleía)) or Greek semicolon ( ; ))

Usage notes

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  • · can be uniquely represented by the Unicode character U+0387 GREEK ANO TELEIA.
  • In many places, including on Wiktionary, U+0387 is automatically converted to · (U+00B7 MIDDLE DOT). This is because U+0387 is converted to U+00B7 by all Unicode normalizations.
  • In some fonts, · (U+0387) is positioned higher than · (U+00B7), similarly to the top point of a colon (:) or semicolon (;).

See also

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Latin

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Punctuation mark

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·

  1. Used to indicate a word boundary.
    Synonyms: 🙑,
    • c. 100 CE Roman inscription (image):
      C[aius]·AVRELIVS / PARTꟵENIVS / ÓRNÁMENTꟾS·DEC[urionalibus] / HONÓRÁTVS·COL[oniae]·AVG[ustae] / NEMAVSꟾ·IIIIꟾVIR·AVG[ustalis] / COL[onia]·CÓPIA·CLAVD[ia]·AVG[usta]·LVGVD[uni] / ITEM·NÁRBÓNE·MÁRTIO / ET·FIR[ma]·IVL[ia]·SECVND[anorum] ARAVSIÓNE / ET·FORO·IVLIꟾ·PÁCÁTO / VBꟾQVE·GRÁTVITꟾS·HONÓRIBVS