# comma

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkɒmə/ · frequency rank #20,315

## Definitions
1. The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list.
2. A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark.
3. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia.
4. A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways.
5. A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence.
6. In Ancient Greek rhetoric, a short clause, something less than a colon, originally denoted by comma marks. In antiquity it was defined as a combination of words having no more than eight syllables in all. It was later applied to longer phrases, e.g. the Johannine comma.
7. A brief interval.

## Etymology
From Latin comma, from Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma), from κόπτω (kóptō, “I cut”).

## Easily confused with
- **comp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-comp)
- **Cora** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-cora)
- **Como** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-como)
- **coms** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-coms)
- **costa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-costa)
- **comte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-comte)
- **cotta** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-cotta)
- **conga** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-conga)
- **common** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-common)
- **commit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-commit)
- **commie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-commie)
- **conman** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-conman)
- **Cormac** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-cormac)
- **command** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/comma-vs-command)
- **coa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coa-vs-comma)
- **CMA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cma-vs-comma)
- **come** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/come-vs-comma)
- **cola** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cola-vs-comma)
- **coma** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coma-vs-comma)
- **coca** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/coca-vs-comma)

## Common misspellings (4)
`ccomma`, `cmoma`, `comam`, `ocmma`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/comma