Apec Vocabulary Guide 5

Front 1

clause

Back 1

1. a section, phrase, or passage
2. in grammar, a group of words not necessarily a sentence ( as in "main clause," that contains a subject and predicate, and "coordinate clause," which is two or more clauses of equal status)
3. an article in a legal document

Front 2

ellipses/ellipses

Back 2

a punctuation mark of a series of three dots representing the omission of often extra or non-essential information in text.

Front 3

inconsequential

Back 3

1. unimportant
2. irrelevant

Front 4

quotation marks

Back 4

the punctuation marks placed around words that are quoted from another individual, either spoken or written, to show verbatim use.

Front 5

oxford comma

Back 5

using commas in a series of items, the Oxford comma is the last comma in the series placed before the conjunction; the comma is also called the "Harvard comma" or "serial comma."

Front 6

period

Back 6

for a direct statement, the punctuation mark used at the end of a complete sentence to mark the end of the sentence.

Front 7

exclamation

Back 7

1. a loud, abrupt outcry or protest that can be made in excitement, anger, or joy.

Front 8

question

Back 8

inquiry, query

Front 9

semicolon

Back 9

a punctuation mark that divides a sentence, where two complete sentences that are directly related reside on either side of the mark; the tempo of the mark is that of more pause than a dash but less pause than a period.

Front 10

colon

Back 10

a punctuation mark that is used to show a forthcoming list or explanatory bit of information that elaborates, summarizes or describes what preceded.

Front 11

dash

Back 11

1. a punctuation mark that throws or thrusts the reader forward [noun]
2. to strike, smash, or break to pieces [verb], physically or figuratively.
3. to hurry, rush or hasten [verb]

Front 12

em dash

Back 12

1. in printing, literally, a dash that is one "em" long
2. a punctuation mark that is like, but longer than a dash and connects the letters previous and following, for the purpose of showing a break in thought or tone shift or to replace colons or parentheses...

Front 13

en dash

Back 13

1. in printing, literally, a dash the length of one "en"
2. a punctuation mark that is bigger than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash; there are two uses of the en-dash: 1) to show numerical ranges, and 2) with the compound adjective hyphen, where two words are used in the connection as in "pre--Civil War"

Front 14

hyphen/hyphenate

Back 14

a single-dash punctuation mark used to separate some compound words, found on most keyboards; we hyphenate; a temporary compound, or compound word created for a specific purpose, uses a hyphen if the adjective precedes the word modified; it is recommended that if a writer is uncertain as to whether or not to use a hyphen, he or she should always use a dictionary or style guide

Front 15

brackets

Back 15

1. also called a "square bracket"; a punctuation mark used to enclose an interpolation, change, or added material that defines or clarifies.
2. a group or classification
3. a support

Front 16

slash

Back 16

1. to cut, slit, or make a gash [verb]
2. to critically attack someone verbally [verb]
3. a stroke [noun]
4. a wound [noun]
5. in punctuation, a stroke between two words indicating that either word may be used--whatever is appropriate--or a mark separating.

Front 17

competing punctuation

Back 17

the phenomenon of competing punctuation is when, at the end of a sentence or with quotation marks, we do not repeat punctuation or place two punctuation marks together.

Front 18

ppercent/percentage

Back 18

a proportion, or a fraction amount, from 100, notated with a punctuation mark (%) that can be used in writing; in formal writing, we spell the percentage out.

Front 19

Gregorian calendar

Back 19

1. a solar calendar used throughout the world put in place in 1582 by Pope Gregory VIII that corrected the errors of the Julian calendar, which assumed 365.25 days between vernal equinoxes (about 11 minutes off); at the time of the "fix" of the Gregorian calencar, the calendar had shifted approximately 10 days earlier than the actual equinox; the calendar also changed the organization of leap years.

Front 20

Anno Domini

Back 20

also written "AD"; an abbreviation used in writing calendar dates, representing the number of years following the birth of Jesus Christ.

Front 21

abbreviation

Back 21

the shortened form of a word or phrase

Front 22

before Christ

Back 22

also written "BC"; an abbreviation used in writing calendar dates, representing the number of years previous to the birth of Jesus Christ

Front 23

interpolation

Back 23

1. in writing, inserted text that alters the original text
2. in mathematics, methods of constructing data points
3. in science and engineering, curve fitting in data points

Front 24

braces

Back 24

a punctuation mark used to enclose or connect words or lines to be considered together({ }); used only in text with heavily nested comments, in this order: {[( )]}
2. a pair of game birds
3. an orthopedic or dental appliance
4. to plant firmly