Curly brackets, also known as braces, are punctuation marks that look like this: . They are commonly used in programming languages like Java and Python to group statements or define sets. In mathematics, they can represent a set of numbers, such as 1, 2, 3, indicating that these numbers belong together. In writing, curly brackets can also be used to enclose additional information or clarifications. For example, in a sentence, you might see something like "The cat jumped over the fence." This helps to provide context without interrupting the main flow of the text.