Remove punctuation
Paste a text and get it back without commas, quotes, brackets, hyphens and the rest of the punctuation, in any script. Choose whether to keep contractions like "don't", keep full stops and question marks, or also remove symbols such as $ and +.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Paste or type your text.
- Choose the options. By default only punctuation goes, and apostrophes inside words stay.
- Copy the result. The line under it tells you how many characters were removed.
How it works
The tool tests each character against the Unicode categories: punctuation always, symbols only when you ask. Removed characters are deleted, not replaced with a space, so spacing and line breaks stay exactly as they were. Two spaces side by side can appear where a mark stood between spaces, for example a dash with a space on either side.
Worked example
“Hello, world! (It’s “fine”.)” becomes: Hello world It’s fine. With the apostrophe option off it becomes: Hello world Its fine. With sentence endings kept, the full stop after “fine” stays as well.
Tips
To tidy the double spaces left behind, run the result through the remove extra spaces tool. Before counting words or building a word list, remove punctuation first so “word,” and “word” are the same.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as punctuation?
Every character in the Unicode category Punctuation. That covers commas, full stops, quotes of all kinds, brackets, hyphens and dashes, underscores, slashes, the Spanish ¿ and ¡, and marks of other scripts such as the Chinese 、 and 。.
Why are $ + = and similar characters not removed by default?
Unicode classes them as symbols, not punctuation. Currency signs, mathematical signs and signs like © and ° are symbols. Switch on the symbols option to remove them as well.
What happens to hyphens, such as in "well-known"?
A hyphen is punctuation, so it is deleted and the two parts join: "wellknown". Underscores are removed the same way. If you need a space there, use a find-and-replace on the hyphens first.
How does the apostrophe option work?
A straight or curly apostrophe is kept only when a letter or digit stands on both sides, as in "don't" or "rock’n’roll". An apostrophe or single quote at the edge of a word is removed.