2 Natural languages

Frequent use of the exclamation mark is common in writing by teenagers and in advertising. Some brands cleverly, but confusingly, contain an exclamation mark, e.g. " Yahoo!". Some comic books, especially superhero comics of the mid- 20th century19th century 20th century 21st century more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901- 2000 in the sense of the Gre, routinely use the exclamation mark instead of the period. Overuse of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, since it distracts the reader, and lessens its effects.

The town of Westward Ho!Westward Ho is a sea-side town in Torridge, Devon, England, near Bideford. The town can be found to the north of the A39 road, providing easy access from the towns of Barnstaple, Bideford and Bude. It lies at the south end of Northam Burrows, and faces we in EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England – after which the novel by Charles KingsleyCharles Kingsley ( July 12 1819 January 23 1875) was an English novelist, particularly associated with the West Country. He was born in Devon, the son of a vicar. His brother, Henry Kingsley, also became a novelist. Charles spent his childhood in Clovelly is named – is the only place name in BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly that officially contains an exclamation mark. There is also a town in QuebecQuebec ( In Detail) ( In Detail) National Motto: Je me souviens (I remember CapitalLargest city Quebec City Montreal Area Total % fresh water 2nd largest(1st lgst prov. 1 542 056 km² 11,5% Population Total (2004) Density Ranked 2nd 7 509 928 5,43/km² Admi called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha is a parish (a small town) of Quebec, Canada, located near the St. Lawrence River. Its population is 1,471. The parish is situated at 47°40' N, 68°59' W. Its economy is mainly agricultural. Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!'s motto is Solidaire, which officially contains two exclamation marks in its name. The titles of several musical comedies such as Oklahoma! and Oh! Calcutta! also contain exclamation marks.

The exclamation mark ! is also used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

In some languages, most notably Spanish, a sentence ending in an exclamation mark must also begin with an inverted exclamation mark (the same applies to the question mark, too):

¿Estás loco? ¡La mataste!

In Khoi and San and IPA the exclamation point is used as a letter to indicate the retroflex click sound represented as q in Zulu orthography. In Unicode this letter is properly coded as U+01C3 (ǃ) and distinguished from the common punctuation symbol U+0021 (!) to allow software to deal properly with word breaks.

There is a punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point in English language called interrobang, which resembles those marks superimposed over one another ("‽") but the sequence of "?!" is used more often.

3 Fan fiction

In fan fiction, "!" is used to signify a defining quality in a character, as in romantic!Draco from Harry Potter fandom. Almost always the character in question is a canon character, and most often the quality is one that is unusual, or non-canon. Occassionally, the "!" notation will describe a physical appearance thought to trigger certain reactions, as in shirtless!Vaughn from Alias. Origin unknown.

4 Mathematics

In mathematics the symbol represents the factorial operation. "" means "the product of the integers from 1 to ". For example, (read four factorial) is 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24. To avoid problems in some sums involving factorials, is defined as 1, which is a neutral element in multiplication, not multiplied by anything.

5 Computers

In computer programming, the exclamation mark corresponds to Unicode and ASCII character 33, or 0x0021.

Several computer languages use "!" for a variety of special meanings, most importantly, logical negation, e.g. A != B means "A is not equal to B." In this context, the exclamation is named the bang character, other programmers call it a shriek. Invented in the US it is claimed that the first term is from Unix and the second from Stanford or MIT. In the BBC Basic programming language it is called a pling and is used to reference a 32-bit word.

See also: shebang

In the Geek Code, "!" is used before a letter to denote that the geek refuses to participate in the topic at hand.

6 Chess

In chess notation "!" denotes a good move and "!!" an excellent move.

Punctuation Typography

<Hide>