Curly brackets, also known as braces or curly braces, are a pair of punctuation marks used to group a series of items or to indicate a set of instructions to a computer program. In addition to these commonly used terms, other synonyms for curly brackets include squiggly brackets, gullwing brackets, or simply just brackets. In some contexts, these brackets may also be referred to as crotchets or accolades. Regardless of the terminology used, curly brackets play an essential role in programming and other forms of digital communication to clarify and organize data in a meaningful and consistent way.