noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The punctuation mark ;.

   "The use of the semicolon has remained contentious and subject to fashion."

2. 2
   a punctuation mark (‘;’) used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a period wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

boundarycaesuracoloncommajuncturemark

Example

More examples

"What the hell is a semicolon for anyway?"

Etymology

From semi- + colon.

Related phrases

semicolon butterflypunctuation mark

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.