Punctuation Remover
Paste your text and every punctuation mark and symbol is stripped from it, in any language. Options let you keep hyphens inside words, keep apostrophes in contractions, collapse the double spaces left behind, and protect any characters you list yourself. Free, no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded.
Options
0 characters
How to Use the Punctuation Remover
- Paste your text into the Input text box.
- Choose the options. Keep these characters takes a string of characters to protect, such as #@-. Collapse double spaces is on by default. Keep hyphens in words and Keep apostrophes in contractions are off until you tick them.
- Click Remove Punctuation. The cleaned text appears with three cards: Characters before, Characters after and Characters removed.
- Copy the result. Use Copy Result, or Clear to start over.
What Is Removed
The tool removes every character that Unicode classes as punctuation or as a symbol, apart from the number and word-joining cases described below. That covers the marks you expect — full stops, commas, colons, quotation marks, brackets, dashes, ellipses — and also symbols such as $, +, =, <, >, % and &. Because the classes are Unicode's, it works for punctuation from other writing systems too, such as the Spanish ¿ and ¡, the Japanese 。 and the Arabic ؟. Letters, digits and spaces are never touched.
The two keep options are deliberately narrow. Keep hyphens in words saves a hyphen only when it sits between two letters, so well-known stays whole while a hyphen in 3-4 is turned into a space and a spaced dash is removed. Keep apostrophes in contractions saves an apostrophe between two letters, so it's and o'clock stay whole while a quotation mark does not. The Keep these characters box protects exactly the characters you type, wherever they are.
A Worked Example
Input (58 characters)
Well-known fact: it's a test — with (lots) of punctuation!
Default options (51 characters, 7 removed)
Well known fact its a test with lots of punctuation
Keep hyphens and apostrophes (52 characters, 6 removed)
Well-known fact it's a test with lots of punctuation
The same, plus ! in Keep these characters (53 characters)
Well-known fact it's a test with lots of punctuation!
With the defaults, 6 punctuation marks go, the hyphen in Well-known becomes a space, and the space that the em dash leaves behind is collapsed, making 7 characters removed in all. Untick Collapse double spaces and the result keeps the gap: "a test with lots" has two spaces. Characters removed counts the difference in length, so it includes collapsed spaces.
Cases That Surprise People
| In your text | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|
| word—word | word word | A dash between two words becomes a space, so the words stay apart |
| and/or | and or | A slash between letters or digits becomes a space too |
| 2024-05-12 | 2024 05 12 | Hyphens in dates and ranges become spaces unless you keep them |
| 3.14 and 1,000 | 3.14 and 1,000 | A point or comma between two digits is part of the number and stays |
| $5 and 10% | 5 and 10 | Currency and percent signs are removed |
| #tags and @user | tags and user | Unless you list # and @ under Keep these characters |
Every other mark is simply deleted, with no space put in its place, so a full stop or comma glued to the next word (end.Start) joins them. The exceptions are the dash or slash between two letters or digits, which becomes a space, and a point or comma between two digits, which is kept. To keep a mark everywhere, list it under Keep these characters.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| All punctuation and symbols removed, with some kept if you choose | This page |
| Particular words deleted, or stop words stripped | Remove Words From Text |
| One character or phrase swapped for another | Find and Replace Text |
| Double spaces, tabs and blank lines cleaned up | Extra Space Remover |
| Words counted once the punctuation is gone | Word Frequency Counter |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I remove punctuation from text?
- Paste the text and click Remove Punctuation. Every punctuation mark and symbol is deleted, and the cleaned text appears below with a count of the characters removed.
- How do I remove punctuation but keep hyphens or apostrophes?
- Tick Keep hyphens in words and Keep apostrophes in contractions. They save only those marks that sit between two letters, such as well-known and it's. To keep a mark everywhere, for instance a hyphen in 3-4, type it into the Keep these characters box.
- Does it remove symbols like $ and %?
- Yes. It removes symbols as well as punctuation, including $, %, &, +, = and the like. To protect any of them, add them to Keep these characters.
- Why did two words run together?
- A removed mark is normally deleted, not replaced with a space. The exception is a dash or slash with letters or digits on both sides, as in word—word or and/or, which becomes a space so the words stay apart. Other marks glued to a word, such as end.Start, join the words; add a space there first.
- Does it work for languages other than English?
- Yes. It uses Unicode categories, so punctuation in other scripts is removed as well, and letters with accents are left alone.
- Does it remove line breaks?
- No. Line breaks are kept. Collapse double spaces affects only runs of ordinary spaces.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The text is processed in your browser and is never sent or stored.