DescriptionEdit
A full stop (.) above a comma (,).
EtymologyEdit
The Italian printer Aldus Manutius established the practice of using the semicolon mark to separate words of opposed meaning, and to indicate interdependent statements. The earliest, general use of the semicolon in English was in 1591.
Punctuation markEdit
;
- Indicates a pause longer than the comma and shorter than a period/full stop.
- Separates items in a list where the list items themselves include commas.
Guests at the summit included David Cameron, the British Prime Minister; Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor; and François Hollande, the French President.
- Represents two eyes vertically aligned, the lower one winking, in order to form emoticons.
- (programming) Marks the end of a statement in some programming languages.
<?php echo '<p>Hello World</p>'; ?>
- (speech therapy) Used to separate the year and month of a child's age.
Usage notesEdit
- Called semicolon in English.
- In French all composite symbols (i.e. ;, :, ! and ?) should be preceded by a space.
- In Greek, this symbol is a question mark, and the role of semicolon is fulfilled by U+0387 ·, the άνω τελεία (áno teleía, “upper stop”).
QuotationsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Punctuation