Punctum, plural puncta, adjective punctate, is an anatomical term for a sharp point or tip. It may also refer to:

Medical

Lacrimal punctum The lacrimal punctum (plural ''puncta'') or lacrimal point, is a minute opening on the summits of the lacrimal papillae, seen on the margins of the eyelids at the lateral extremity of the lacrimal lake. There are two lacrimal puncta in the medial ( ...

, a minute opening on the margins of the eyelids that collect tears produced by the lacrimal glands *

Blind spot (vision) A blind spot, scotoma, is an obscuration of the visual field. A particular blind spot known as the ''physiological blind spot'', "blind point", or ''punctum caecum'' in medical literature, is the place in the visual field that corresponds to t ...

, or ''punctum cecum'', the blind spot in human vision corresponding to the location of the optic disk * Erb's point (neurology) or ''punctum nervosum'', a nerve point in the human neck *

Imperforate lacrimal punctum An imperforate lacrimal punctum is a congenital disorder of dogs involving the lack of an opening to the nasolacrimal duct (tear duct) in the conjunctiva. Dogs normally have two lacrimal puncta, the superior and inferior. This condition can affect ...

, a congenital disorder of dogs

Unrelated species named punctum

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Allium punctum ''Allium punctum'' is a species of wild onion known by the common name dotted onion or Modoc onion. It is native to the western United States in and around the Modoc Plateau in northeastern California ( Modoc County), northwestern Nevada ( Humbold ...

'', a species of wild onion *''

Amyna punctum ''Amyna punctum'' is a moth of the family Noctuidae first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1794. This moth can be found throughout subtropical African countries such as South Africa, Madagascar and Australasian countries like India, Sri ...

'', a moth of the family Noctuidae *''

Cinguloterebra punctum ''Terebra punctum'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Terebridae The Terebridae, commonly referred to as auger shells or auger snails, is a group or family of small to large predatory marine gastropods in the ...

'', a sea snail of the family Terebridae *''

Phylloxiphia punctum ''Phylloxiphia punctum'' is a moth of the family Sphingidae. It is known from savanna from north-eastern South Africa to Zimbabwe, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. The length of the forewings is about 35 mm. Femal ...

'', a moth of the family Sphingidae *''

Sepsis punctum ''Sepsis punctum'' is a European species of fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order u ...

'', a fly of the family Sepsidae *''

Zygaena punctum ''Zygaena punctum'' is a species of moth in the family Zygaenidae. It is found in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey. Technical description and variation (Seitz ...

'', a moth of the family Zygaenidae

Other

* ''Punctum'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails *

Punctum delens When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the ''interpunct'' ( · ), or to the glyphs "combining dot above" ( ◌̇ ) and "combining dot below" ( ◌̣ ) which may be combined with some letters of the ...

, typographic marks used to indicate deletion * Neume, the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation *

Equant Equant (or punctum aequans) is a mathematical concept developed by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD to account for the observed motion of the planets. The equant is used to explain the observed speed change in different stages of the plane ...

, punctum aequans, is a mathematical concept developed by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD to account for the observed motion of heavenly bodies *A concept in the 1980 French philosophy book ''Camera Lucida'' *a medieval unit of time corresponding to a

Quarter-hour An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr) is a unit of time conventionally reckoned as of a day and scientifically reckoned between 3,599 and 3,601 seconds, depending on the speed of Earth's rotation. There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 ho ...

*In photography, a term used by

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

to refer to an incidental but personally poignant detail in a photograph * Punctate, a botanical term meaning marked with an indefinite number of dots, spots, pits or glands {{disambiguation