🇫🇷 A mark on vowels ⌨️ A backtick symbol

grave accent

7.7

A character used in computer text to show code or run commands

noun

Specialized

: acento grave

When writing README files, the grave accent often marks inline code snippets for clarity.

Examples

In many shells, you can use the grave accent to run a command and capture its output.
Avoid typing an unmatched grave accent because it can break shell scripts or Markdown formatting.
The grave accent is often used in programming languages.
You can use a grave accent to format inline code.
In many shells, you can use the grave accent to run a command and capture its output.
When writing README files, the grave accent often marks inline code snippets for clarity.
Avoid typing an unmatched grave accent because it can break shell scripts or Markdown formatting.

Surface Forms

grave accent singular

grave accents plural

Morphology

grave + accent

The phrase is directly compositional: 'grave' specifies the type of 'accent', so a learner who knows those constituent senses will infer it denotes a particular diacritic mark. Although in computing contexts it is called a backtick or used as a delimiter, the basic meaning 'a kind of accent mark' is transparently derived from the parts.

Etymology

Grave accent also names the small ` sign used in computers, often called a 'backtick'. Because it looks like a backward quote, people use it to mark pieces of 'code' or to run a command, so it tells the computer that the text is code or a command.