semicolon - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about semicolon Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
1,752,624,350 visitors served.
forum mailing list For webmasters
?
New: Language forums
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

semicolon

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.

semicolon

Punctuation mark (;) with a function halfway between the separation of sentence from sentence by means of a full stop, or period, and the internal separation provided by a comma. It also helps separate items in a complex list: ‘pens, pencils, and paper; staple foods, such as rice and beans; tools, various; and rope’.

Rather than the abrupt ‘We saw Mark last night. It was good to see him again’, and the casual (and often condemned) ‘We saw Mark last night, it was good to see him again’, the semicolon reflects a link in a two-part statement and is considered good style: We saw Mark last night; it was good to see him again. In such cases an alternative is to use a comma followed by and or but.



How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
 Email
Feedback
?Sign in SSL protected
Email:
Password:
Register

? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
For you ought to stop twice as long at a semicolon as you do at a comma, and you make the longest stops where there ought to be no stop at all.
The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George View in context
Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses," said Mrs.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George View in context
It was the big thing out of life he had read to her, not sentence-structure and semicolons.
Martin Eden by London, Jack View in context
More results
 
Hutchinson browser? ? Full browser
 
 
Hutchinson Encyclopedia
?

Disclaimer | Privacy policy | Feedback | Copyright © 2009 Farlex, Inc.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. Terms of Use.