Virama

Virama (Sanskrit: विराम, virāma ?) is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and Eastern Nagari script, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end". As a Sanskrit word, it is used in place of several language-specific terms, such as halant (Hindi: हलन्त्, halant ?), hôshonto (Bengali: হসন্ত, hoshonto ?), pulli (Tamil: புள்ளி, puḷḷi ?), chandrakkala (Malayalam: ചന്ദ്രക്കല, candrakkala ?), halant (Kannada: ಹಲಂತ, halanta ?), halanta (Oriya: ହଳନ୍ତ, haḷanta ?), a that (Burmese: အသတ်, a.sat, lit. "sound killer") and phinthu (Thai: –ฺ พินทุ).