The meaning of DEFINITION is a statement of the meaning of a word or word group or a sign or symbol. How to use definition in a sentence. Typographical symbols and punctuation marks are used in typography with a variety of purposes such as to help with legibility and accessibility, or to identify special cases. This list gives those most commonly encountered with Latin script. For a far more comprehensive list of symbols and signs, see List of Unicode characters. Is it raining, or snowing, or what? Is this exciting, or what? A clever play, what? What you need is a vacation. What angered us was the tone of the article. What does he care? … what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk. William Shakespeare. What minerals do we export? What mountains! We can use what as a pronoun to mean ‘the thing (s) that’: … We can use what in exclamations to express a strong feeling or opinion. In this case, we use what as a determiner before a noun or before a/an (+ adjective) + noun: … What … for? We can use what … for? in two ways. Questions such as “what is this symbol?”, “what symbol is this?”, “what is this symbol called?” and “what is the name of this symbol?” often refer to punctuation marks, keyboard characters, mathematical signs, currency symbols, or other Unicode characters. We can use what as a pronoun to mean ‘the thing (s) that’: … We can use what in exclamations to express a strong feeling or opinion. In this case, we use what as a determiner before a noun or before a/an (+ adjective) + noun: … What … for? We can use what … for? in two ways. Test your puzzle skills with today's game. The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years! Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images from experts. Can be thought of as Either less than or greater than , which implies not equal. (used interrogatively as a request for specific information). What is the matter? (used interrogatively to inquire about the character, occupation, etc., of a person). What does he do? (used interrogatively to inquire as to the origin, identity, etc., of something). What are those birds?.