Dinkus
A typographic marker, usually three asterisks, used to indicate a break in a text.
A dinkus is a small typographic ornament, most commonly a line of three asterisks (* * *), used to mark a break in a narrative. It usually signals a shift in time, place, or point of view within a scene, or a pause before a new section begins.
The word is printers' slang, probably of nineteenth-century origin, and is used in editorial and typesetting circles more than in general conversation. It is related to the 'space break' or 'section break' in digital publishing.
In quotation-heavy texts, a dinkus can separate one block of quoted material from another, or it can mark a break between an extract and the surrounding commentary. It should be used sparingly; too many dinkuses make the page look restless.
Common mistake: using a dinkus to mark a paragraph break. A paragraph break is already a break; the dinkus is for a break that needs more emphasis than a blank line can provide.
“* * *”
Keep reading the glossary
A long quotation set off as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
Three dots that mark words omitted from a quotation.
The forward slash used to mark line endings when verse is quoted inline.
A paragraph whose first line sits left of the rest — the standard shape of a bibliography entry.