Meaning & use

decimal point

noun·Academic

The punctuation mark that separates the whole number part of a number from its fractional part.

See it in a sentence

Be careful to place the decimal point correctly when converting units.

A misplaced decimal point turned the invoice total into a much larger number.

A note on using this word

In many countries outside the United States and United Kingdom, a comma is used instead of a decimal point.

Words with a similar meaning

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