Punctum

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

Medical

• Lacrimal punctum, a minute opening on the margins of the eyelids that collect tears produced by the lacrimal glands
• Blind spot (vision), 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, a congenital disorder of dogs

Unrelated species named punctum

• Allium punctum, a species of wild onion
• Amyna punctum, a moth of the family Noctuidae
• Cinguloterebra punctum, a sea snail of the family Terebridae
• Phylloxiphia punctum, a moth of the family Sphingidae
• Sepsis punctum, a fly of the family Sepsidae
• Zygaena punctum, a moth of the family Zygaenidae

Other

• Punctum (gastropod), a genus of land snails
• Punctum delens, 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, 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
• In photography, a term used by Roland Barthes 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