Period (USA) / full stop (UK) [ . ]

Periods always go inside quotation marks in American English usage. Use the period according to the rules listed below.

To begin, find out about the purposes for which the period is used. Click on a link below to read the rules and see examples, take a guided tour by clicking the 'start' button below.

1. At the end of a declarative sentence, at the end of a mildly imperative sentence; at the end of a rhetorical question and any other question that is a suggestion and is not requiring an answer (indirect questions).
2. After a letter or number indicating an item in a series.
3. As part of an ellipsis.
4. In numbers with integers and decimals.
5. In many abbreviations.
6. After a person's initials.
7. Centered, to indicate a multiplication sign, as 2 ⋅ 3 = 6.