# semicolon

Pronunciation: US say "SEM-ee-koh-luhn" /ˈsɛmikoʊlən/; UK say "sem-ee-KOH-luhn" /ˌsɛmiˈkəʊlən/

## Noun

1. The punctuation mark ;, used to separate independent clauses or to divide items in a list that already contains commas.
   - Simple: A punctuation mark, a dot over a comma, that joins two sentences or splits long lists.
   - _She used a semicolon to link the two closely related statements._
   - _The style guide warned against scattering semicolons throughout casual writing._

## Origin

Formed from the prefix "semi-" combined with "colon."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/semicolon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).