OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Remove Punctuation
Remove Symbols and Emoji From Text While Keeping Apostrophes
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How the Remove Punctuation works
Remove punctuation from any text by pasting it in. Full stops, commas, quotes, brackets, dashes and ellipses all go, and you choose whether apostrophes inside words like don't stay, and whether numbers, currency signs and other symbols, or emoji go too.
How remove punctuation works
The tool uses the Unicode general categories every character carries. Anything in the Punctuation category (P) goes when punctuation is set to Remove, which covers curly quotes, en and em dashes, the ellipsis character and punctuation from other scripts, not just the ASCII marks on a keyboard. Numbers (N) and Symbols (S) are separate switches, and emoji are matched as whole sequences so a family or flag emoji does not leave stray joiner characters behind. With "keep apostrophes in words", an apostrophe between two letters survives, so it's and O'Brien stay intact while quotes around a word are removed.
The formula for what is left is simple: characters after = characters before − characters removed, and the stats under the result show each count.
First example. "Hello, world! It's 9:30 — time for tea…" with the default settings becomes "Hello world Its 930 time for tea", 39 characters down to 32.
Second example. The same text with apostrophes kept and numbers removed becomes "Hello world It's time for tea".
How many characters count as punctuation? Unicode 15 lists about 850 characters in the P category and over 7,000 symbols in S, so a hand-written list of marks always misses some.
Common characters, their Unicode general category and the option that removes them
| Character | Name | Unicode category | Removed by |
|---|---|---|---|
| . | Full stop | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| , | Comma | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ! | Exclamation mark | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ? | Question mark | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ; | Semicolon | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| : | Colon | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ' | Apostrophe | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ’ | Curly apostrophe | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| " | Straight quote | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| “ | Opening curly quote | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| ( | Opening bracket | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| - | Hyphen-minus | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| – | En dash | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| — | Em dash | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| … | Ellipsis | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| / | Slash | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| @ | At sign | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| # | Hash | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| & | Ampersand | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| * | Asterisk | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| % | Percent | Punctuation (P) | Punctuation |
| $ | Dollar sign | Symbol (S) | Symbols |
| £ | Pound sign | Symbol (S) | Symbols |
| + | Plus sign | Symbol (S) | Symbols |
| = | Equals sign | Symbol (S) | Symbols |
| © | Copyright sign | Symbol (S), emoji | Emoji |
| ° | Degree sign | Symbol (S) | Symbols |
| 7 | Digit seven | Number (N) | Numbers |
| ½ | Vulgar fraction one half | Number (N) | Numbers |
| 😀 | Grinning face emoji | Symbol (S), emoji | Emoji |
Tips and pitfalls
Hyphens are punctuation, so "e-mail" becomes "email" and "well-known" becomes "wellknown". If you need hyphenated words split instead, replace hyphens with spaces first using a find and replace tool. Removing punctuation before counting words or building a word cloud gives cleaner counts, but keep the original for anything a person will read.
FAQ
Does it remove apostrophes?
By default, yes. Choose "Remove, keep apostrophes in words" to keep an apostrophe that sits between two letters, as in don't, it's or O'Brien, while still removing quotation marks and apostrophes at the start or end of a word.
Are currency signs and percent signs punctuation?
Unicode puts the percent sign in the punctuation category, so it goes with punctuation. Currency signs such as £, $ and €, and maths signs such as + and =, are symbols, removed only when you set Symbols to Remove.
Will it remove emoji?
Only if you set Emoji to Remove. Emoji are matched as complete sequences, including skin tones, flags and family emoji joined with invisible joiner characters, so nothing half-removed is left behind in the text.
What happens to the spaces where punctuation was?
With Collapse, runs of spaces left behind are squeezed to a single space and each line is trimmed. Choose Keep if you want the text to keep its exact spacing, for example in fixed-width columns.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The text is processed by JavaScript in your browser and never leaves your device, so it is safe to paste private documents, customer data or drafts you have not published yet.
See also: all Writing & Editing tools, Lists & Lines, Markdown & HTML, Ciphers & Alphabets.
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