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Upside-down marks, simple in the era of hand typesetting, were originally recommended by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), in the second edition of the Ortografía de la lengua castellana (Orthography of the Castilian language) in 1754 [3] recommending it as the symbol indicating the beginning of a question in written Spanish—e.g. "¿Cuántos años tienes?"
The asterisk (/ ˈ æ s t ər ɪ s k / *), from Late Latin asteriscus, from Ancient Greek ἀστερίσκος, asteriskos, "little star", [1] [2] is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
In English, the question mark typically occurs at the end of a sentence, where it replaces the full stop (period). However, the question mark may also occur at the end of a clause or phrase, where it replaces the comma (see also Question comma):
The check mark is a predominant affirmative symbol of convenience in the English-speaking world because of its instant and simple composition.
The at sign, @, is an accounting and invoice abbreviation meaning "at a rate of" (e.g. 7 widgets @ £2 per widget = £14), [1] now seen more widely in email addresses and social media platform handles.
Example from 1948 Example from 2017. In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government, guiding agencies on how to interpret and implement congressionally-passed laws. [1]
Spaced en dashes are also used to set aside a phrase – like this – in a sentence; when this is done, it is preferred that a non-breaking space be used before the en dash and a normal one after it: – . Em dash (— or —, MOS:EMDASH) are even longer and are used solely to set aside a phrase—like this—in a sentence.
The symbol # is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, [1] hash, [2] or pound sign. [3] The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a ligatured abbreviation for pounds avoirdupois – having been derived from the now-rare ℔.