mark
Other forms: marked; marks; marking
A mark is some kind of dot, line, or figure that emphasizes or distinguishes something. You might make a mark on your calendar to remind you of your best friend's birthday.
There are many kinds of marks, from punctuation — like quotation marks — to spots or scars on skin — "The bee sting left a mark on his cheek." When you mark something, you leave a mark on it, check it off, cross it out, or label it. You can also mark something by noticing or acknowledging it: "Let's mark your birthday with a big party!" Shopkeepers mark prices on goods, and a "mark down" is a reduction in price.
Definitions of mark
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a distinguishing symbol“the owner's mark was on all the sheep”types:earmarkidentification mark on the ear of a domestic animalbrandidentification mark on skin, made by burningtrademarka formally registered symbol identifying the manufacturer or distributor of a productassay-mark, authentication, hallmarka mark on an article of trade to indicate its origin and authenticitypostmarka cancellation mark stamped on mail by postal officials; indicates the post office and date of mailingwatermarka distinguishing mark impressed on paper during manufacture; visible when paper is held up to the lightbroad arrowan arrowhead mark identifying British government propertylabelan identifying or descriptive marker that is attached to an objectcairna mound of stones piled up as a memorial or to mark a boundary or pathSharpiea pen with indelible ink that will write on any surfacetag, ticketa label written or printed on paper, cardboard, or plastic that is attached to something to indicate its owner, nature, price, etc.taga label associated with something for the purpose of identificationtitle bar(computer science) a horizontal label at the top of a window, bearing the name of the currently active documenttype of:symbolan arbitrary sign (written or printed) that has acquired a conventional significance
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a written or printed symbol (as for punctuation)“his answer was just a punctuation mark”types:broad arrowa mark shaped like an arrowhead; used to mark convicts' clothingcall mark, call number, pressmarka mark consisting of characters written on a book; used to indicate shelf locationcareta mark used by an author or editor to indicate where something is to be inserted into a textdollar mark, dollar signa mark ($) written before a number to indicate that it stands for the number of dollarspunctuation, punctuation markthe marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrasesaccent, accent marka diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciationbrevea diacritical mark (U-shaped) placed over a vowel to indicate a short soundcedillaa diacritical mark (,) placed below the letter c to indicate that it is pronounced as an scircumflexa diacritical mark (^) placed above a vowel in some languages to indicate a special phonetic qualityhacek, wedgea diacritical mark (an inverted circumflex) placed above certain letters (such as the letter c) to indicate pronunciationmacrona diacritical mark (-) placed above a vowel to indicate a long soundtildea diacritical mark (~) placed over the letter n in Spanish to indicate a palatal nasal sound or over a vowel in Portuguese to indicate nasalizationdiaeresis, dieresis, umlauta diacritical mark (two dots) placed over a vowel in German to indicate a change in soundampersanda punctuation mark (&) used to represent conjunction (and)apostrophethe mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed wordbraceeither of two punctuation marks ({ or }) used to enclose textual materialangle bracket, bracketeither of two punctuation marks ('<' or '>') used in computer programming and sometimes used to enclose textual materialcolona punctuation mark (:) used after a word introducing a series or an example or an explanation (or after the salutation of a business letter)commaa punctuation mark (,) used to indicate the separation of elements within the grammatical structure of a sentencedash, hyphena punctuation mark (-) used between parts of a compound word or between the syllables of a word when the word is divided at the end of a line of textparenthesiseither of two punctuation marks ( or ) used to enclose textual materialfull point, full stop, period, point, stopa punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviationsinterrogation point, question marka punctuation mark (?) at the end of a sentence that is asking somethinginverted comma, quotation mark, quotea punctuation mark used to attribute the enclosed text to someone elsesemicolona punctuation mark (`;') used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a perioddiagonal, separatrix, slash, solidus, stroke, virgulea punctuation mark (/) used to separate related items of information such as words, lines of text, or numbersswung dasha punctuation mark (~) used to replace a word in text or listsellipsisa mark or marks, such as three dots, indicating that words have been omittedtype of:
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a number or letter indicating quality (especially of a student's performance)“she made good marks in algebra”types:grade pointa numerical value assigned to a letter grade received in a course taken at a college or university multiplied by the number of credit hours awarded for the coursecentile, percentile(statistics) a score with a value between 1 and 99 indicating how much of a distribution is equal to or below that scoredecile(statistics) any of nine points that divided a distribution of ranked scores into equal intervals where each interval contains one-tenth of the scoresquartile(statistics) any of three points that divide an ordered distribution into four parts each containing one quarter of the scorestype of:
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a visible indication made on a surface“some previous reader had covered the pages with dozens of marks”synonyms: printtypes:fingerprinta print made by an impression of the ridges in the skin of a finger; often used for biometric identification in criminal investigationstracea visible mark (as a footprint) left by the passage of person or animal or vehiclemintmarka mark on a coin that identifies the mint where it was producedstrokea mark made on a surface by a pen, pencil, or paintbrushlinea mark that is long relative to its widthlinein games or sports; a mark indicating positions or bounds of the playing areacross hair, cross wireeither of two fine mutually perpendicular lines that cross in the focus plane of an optical instrument and are use for sighting or calibrationloopthe basic pattern of the human fingerprintthumbprintfingerprint made by the thumb (especially by the pad of the thumb)footprint evidenceevidence in the form of footprintsdownstrokea stroke normally made in a downward directionupstrokea stroke normally made in an upward directionflicka short strokedotted linea line made up of dots or dashes; often used to indicate where you are supposed to sign a contractascender(printing) the part of tall lowercase letters that extends above the other lowercase lettersbar linea vertical line before the accented beat marking the boundary between musical barsdescender(printing) the part of lowercase letters that extends below the other lowercase lettersspectrum linean isolated component of a spectrum formed by radiation at a uniform frequencytrend linea line on a graph indicating a statistical trendgraduationa line (as on a vessel or ruler) that marks a measurementguidelinea light line that is used in lettering to help align the lettershairlinea very thin lineshafta line that forms the length of an arrow pointerstaff lineany of the 5 horizontal marks comprising a staffledger line, leger line(music) a short horizontal line above or below the staff for writing notes that are outside the staff’s rangebalkline, baulk-line, string lineline across a billiard table behind which the cue balls are placed at the start of a gamefoul linelines through 1st and 3rd base indicating the boundaries of a baseball fieldfoul linea line across a bowling alley that a bowler must not crossfoul linea line from which basketball players take penalty shotsbaselinethe lines a baseball player must follow while running the basesgoal linea line marking each end of the playing field or pitch; where the goals standred linea line that is colored red and that bisects an ice hockey rinkline of scrimmage, scrimmage lineline parallel to the goal lines where football linesmen line up at the start of each play in American footballbaseline, service linethe back line bounding each end of a tennis or handball court; when serving the server must not step over this linescratch, scratch line, start, starting linea line indicating the location of the start of a race or a gameyard linein football; line parallel to the goal lines indicating position on the fieldtype of:
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a marking that consists of lines that cross each othersynonyms: crisscross, crosstype of:markinga pattern of marks
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an indication of damage
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make or leave a mark on“the scouts marked the trail”“ash marked the believers' foreheads”types:dotmark with a dotraddlemark or paint with raddlestriatemark with striae or striationsinkmark, coat, cover, or stain with inkdimplemark with, or as if with, dimplesspotmark with a spot or spots so as to allow easy recognitioncrisscrossmark with a pattern of crossing linesflagprovide with a flagtipmark with a tipstripemark with stripesspeckproduce specks in or onbespotmark with, or as if with, spotsbrandburn with a branding iron to indicate ownership; of animalsfrecklemark with frecklesconstructdraw with suitable instruments and under specified conditionsinscribedraw within a figure so as to touch in as many places as possiblecircumscribedraw a line aroundcircumscribedraw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersectwritemark or trace on a surface
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designate as if by a mark“This sign marks the border”synonyms:differentiate, distinguishbe a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense
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put a check mark on or near or next to“mark off the units”check, check into, check out, check over, check up on, go over, look into, suss outexamine so as to determine accuracy, quality, or condition
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remove from a listsynonyms: cross off, cross out, strike off, strike out
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assign a grade or rank to, according to one's evaluation
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insert punctuation marks into
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attach a tag or label totypes:pointmark (a psalm text) to indicate the points at which the music changespointmark with diacriticspointmark (Hebrew words) with diacriticscalibratemark (the scale of a measuring instrument) so that it can be read in the desired unitscodeattach a code tobadgeput a badge ontype of:attachcause to be attached
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mark with a scar
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make small marks into the surface oftypes:scarifyscratch the surface ofscotchmake a small cut or score intoscribescore a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworkinglinemark with linesrelineput new lines onhatchdraw, cut, or engrave lines, usually parallel, on metal, wood, or papercrisscrossmark with or consist of a pattern of crossed linestype of:notchcut or make a notch into
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make underscoring marks
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a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent (as a visible clue that something has happened)
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the impression created by doing something unusual or extraordinary that people notice and remember
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a symbol of disgrace or infamy
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notice or perceive
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mark by some ceremony or observation“The citizens mark the anniversary of the revolution with a march and a parade”synonyms: commemorate
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be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sensesynonyms: differentiate, distinguishtype of:characterise, characterize, qualifydescribe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of
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establish as the highest level or best performance
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to accuse or condemn or openly or formally or brand as disgracefulsynonyms: brand, denounce, stigmatise, stigmatizetype of:labelassign a label to; designate with a label
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something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal“hit the mark”synonyms: bell ringer, bull's eye, home runtype of:successan attainment that is successful
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a reference point to shoot at
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a person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of
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formerly the basic unit of money in Germanysynonyms: Deutsche Mark, Deutschmark, German marktype of:German monetary unitmonetary unit in Germany
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Word Family
Vocabulary lists containing mark
"The Road Not Taken"
This road or that road? See how Robert Frost's traveler describes the possible choices in the poem "The Road Not Taken." Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 7 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Road Not Taken, Choices, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Dust Tracks on a Road, Bad Boy, Why Couldn't I Have Been Named Ashley?, Phaethon, Daedalus and Icarus, Arachne, The Lion, the Fox, and the Stag, A Note from the Author, creation myths
"Hanging Fire"
Audre Lorde published her first poem as a teenager, and went on to become the poet laureate of New York State. In "Hanging Fire" she takes on the voice of a young girl whose emotions are figuratively on fire and who wishes her mother who is "in the bedroom with the door closed" would come out to help her cool down. Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Poetry, poemcrazy, Nikki-Rosa, We Real Cool, Fast Break, Identity, Ego Tripping, Hanging Fire, odes, Sonnet 18, In Response to Executive Order 9066, Young, Poetry Cafe, poems by Nikki Giovanni
"The Flea" by John Donne
In this poem, Donne uses a "metaphysical conceit," or extended metaphor. The poem's speaker attempts to woo his beloved by comparing their relationship to the actions of a flea. Here are links to our lists for other poems by John Donne: "The Canonization", "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning", "Song: Go and catch a falling star", "Death, be not proud", "The Sun Rising"