‘句号’ (jù hào) literally means 'sentence mark' — combining 句 (jù), meaning 'sentence' or 'clause', and 号 (hào), meaning 'mark', 'sign', or 'symbol'. It refers specifically to the punctuation mark known in English as the period or full stop (‘.’), used to indicate the end of a declarative sentence in written Chinese. Unlike English, Chinese does not use spacing before or after the 句号, and it is always placed at the bottom right corner of the last character.

This term is used both technically (e.g., in language instruction, editing, or typography) and figuratively — for example, saying ‘这件事画上句号’ (zhè jiàn shì huà shàng jù hào) means 'this matter has come to a definitive end', much like saying 'it’s a full stop' in English. While students learn 句号 early in literacy education, adults use it routinely in writing emails, essays, and formal documents.