semicolon

Other spellings

• semi-colon
• semi colon

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA ^(key): /ˌsɛmiˈkəʊlən/
• (US) IPA ^(key): /ˈsɛmikoʊlən/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

Singular semicolon

Plural semicolons

1. A semicolon is the sign ; used to mark a pause longer than the comma (,) but shorter than the period (.).

   A space is needed after the semicolon.

   Do not use a semicolon between a clause and a phrase, or a main clause and a subordinate clause.

Related words

• semi
• colon

Punctuation marks (edit)

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) • brackets ( [] ) • braces ( {} ) • colon ( : ) • comma ( , ) • dashes ( – ) ( — ) • ellipsis ( ... ) • exclamation mark ( ! ) • hyphen ( ‐ ) ( - ) • parentheses ( () ) • period / full stop ( . ) • question mark ( ? ) • quotation marks ( ' ' ) ( " " ) • semicolon ( ; ) • slash ( / ) Other: ampersand ( & ) • asterisk ( * ) • at ( @ ) • backslash ( \ ) • bullet ( • ) ( · ) • degree ( ° ) • number sign / pound sign ( # ) • tilde ( ~ ) • underscore ( _ ) • vertical bar / pipe ( | ) •