Translingual

Diacritical mark

·

1. The dot.

Symbol

·

1. (mathematics) The product operator.

   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. (Gregg shorthand) the letter a
5. (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.

Synonyms

• (decimal point): ., ,
• (dot product): ⋅

Usage notes

• (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.
• (Gregg shorthand, letter a): · ‎(“dot”) is the shorthand form of a in Centennial, Series 90, DJS, Simplified, Anniversary, and Pre-Anniversary shorthand.

See also

Punctuation

Asturian

Diacritical mark

·

1. A diacritical mark of the Latin script, called puntu inferior ‎(“dot below”) in Asturian, and found on Ḥ/ḥ and Ḷ/ḷ.

Catalan

Diacritical mark

·

1. 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 .

Chinese

Punctuation mark

·

1. Separates first and last names in foreign proper names.

   巴拉克·奧巴馬 / 巴拉克·奥巴马  ―  Bālākè Àobāmǎ  ―  Barack Obama

2. Separates the title of a literary work or collection from the title of a section.

   《論語·子張》 / 《论语·子张》  ―  "Lúnyǔ · Zǐzhāng"  ―  Analects, "Zizhang"

   《青少年文庫·傲慢與偏見》 [MSC, trad.]

   《青少年文库·傲慢与偏见》 [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.

   《水調歌頭·明月幾時有》 [MSC, trad.]

   《水调歌头·明月几时有》 [MSC, simp.]

   "Shuǐtiáo Gētóu · Míngyuè Jīshí Yǒu" [Pinyin]

   "Mid-Autumn Festival Night" to the tune of "Shuidiao Getou"

4. Separates items in a list in titles.

   《天·地·人》  ―  "Tiān · Dì · Rén"  ―  Heaven, Earth, Man

5. Separates the month from the day in events, commemorations, etc. named after dates, only used after January (一 (yī)), November (一一 (yīyī)) and December (一二 (yī'èr)) when hanzi are used.

   一·二八事變 / 一·二八事变  ―  yī-èrbā shìbiàn  ―  January 28 Incident

   9·11襲擊事件 / 9·11袭击事件  ―  9-11 xíjī shìjiàn  ―  9/11 attacks

   九一八事變 / 九一八事变  ―  jiǔ-yībā shìbiàn  ―  Mukden Incident (lit. September 18 Incident)

Usage notes

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

Greek

Punctuation mark

· (U+0387)

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

Usage notes

• · is correctly represented by the Unicode character U+0387, which is positioned similarly to the top point of a colon (:) or semicolon (;)
• For technical reasons, U+0387 reproduces in Wiktionary as the Latin middle dot (U+00B7).

  U+0387 (higher) = · vs · = U+00B7 (lower)

See also

• Appendix:Greek Punctuation

Irish

Diacritical mark

̇

1. A diacritical mark of the Latin script, called ponc séimhithe ‎(“lenition dot”) in Irish, and found on Ḃ/ḃ, Ċ/ċ, Ḋ/ḋ, Ḟ/ḟ, Ġ/ġ, Ṁ/ṁ, Ṗ/ṗ, Ṡ/ṡ and Ṫ/ṫ. (generally used only in Gaelic script; very rare in Latin script)

Latin

Punctuation mark

·

1. Used to indicate a word boundary.