Semicolon

Punctuation marks
apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) brackets ( ( ) ) ( [ ] ) ( { } ) ( 〈 〉 ) colon ( : ) comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒ ) ( - ) ( - ) ( ― ) Ellipsis ( … ) ( ... ) Exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop/period ( . ) Hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) Interrobang ( ‽ ) Question mark ( ? ) quotation marks ( ' ' ) ( " " ) semicolon ( ; ) slash/solidus ( / ) space (   ) Interpunct ( · )
Other typographer's marks
Ampersand ( & ) Asterisk ( * ) asterism ( ⁂ ) at ( @ ) Backslash ( \#*$@ ) bullet ( •, more ) dagger ( † ‡ ) degrees ( ° ) Number sign ( # ) prime ( ′ ) Tilde ( ~ ) Underscore ( _ ) vertical bar/pipe ( | )

A semicolon ( ; ') is a kind of Punctuation mark.

History

The earliest general use of the semicolon in English was in 1591. Shakespeare's sonnets have semicolons, and Ben Jonson was the first notable English writer to systematically use them.

Language usage

1. It binds two sentences more closely than they would be if separated by a Full stop or period. It often replaces a conjunction such as and or but. A writer might consider this appropriate where they are trying to indicate a close relationship between two sentences, or a 'run-on' in meaning from one to the next; they don't wish the connection to be broken by the abrupt use of a full-stop.
2. It is used as a stronger division than a comma, to make meaning clear in a sentence where commas are already being used for other purposes. A common example of this use is to separate the items of a list when some of the items themselves contain commas.

There are several rules that govern semicolon placement:

1. Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses not joined by a coordinating conjunction: "I went to the store; they were closed."
2. Use a semicolon between independent clauses linked with a transitional phrase or conjunctive adverb: "I like to ride horses; however, they don't like to be ridden by me."
3. Use a semicolon between items in a series containing internal Punctuation: "There are several Waffle Houses in Atlanta, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; Pensacola, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama."

A semicolon can be used to separate independent clauses that are joined by coordinating conjunctions when the clauses have internal commas that might lead to misreading: "After the game, I won a red beanie baby, four edible ingots, and a certificate of excellence; but when the storm came, I lost it all in a torrent of sleet, snow, and profanity."

Semicolons are always placed after closing quotation marks and are never followed by an uppercase letter, unless that letter begins a proper noun.

In Greek, a semicolon indicates a question, similar to a Latin Question mark.

Examples

I am alone; my wife had to leave.

I travelled to London, England; Tijuana, Mexico; and Reykjavík, Iceland.

Lisa scored 2,845,770 points; Marcia, 2,312,860; and Jeff, 1,726,640.

Quote

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college." - Kurt Vonnegut

Computing usage

In computer systems, the semicolon is represented by Unicode and ASCII character 59, or 0x003B.