Semicolon is an English word with synonyms like punctuation. Below you'll find 10+ example sentences showing how it's used in practice.
Semicolon meaning
The punctuation mark ;.
Synonyms of Semicolon
Using Semicolon
- The main meaning on this page is: The punctuation mark ;.
- Useful related words include: punctuation, punctuation mark.
- In the example corpus, semicolon often appears in combinations such as: the semicolon, by semicolon, semicolon and.
Context around Semicolon
- Average sentence length in these examples: 22.3 words
- Position in the sentence: 10 start, 6 middle, 4 end
- Sentence types: 20 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Semicolon
- In this selection, "semicolon" usually appears near the start of the sentence. The average example has 22.3 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, implied, first, doing, get, cannot and cafe stand out and add context to how "semicolon" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include a semicolon can be and a semicolon is still. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "semicolon" sits close to words such as abbeys, abundances and aced, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with semicolon
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
A semicolon can be like a sigh. (7 words)
Moore began seeing that problem firsthand after opening her first Semicolon. (11 words)
A semicolon (;) was produced by printing a comma (,) over a colon (:). (11 words)
In the case of nested ifs, a semicolon cannot be used to avoid the dangling else problem (where the inner if does not have an else, but the outer if does) by putatively terminating the nested if with a semicolon – this instead terminates both if clauses. (46 words)
The semicolon’s two main detractors, the antiheroes of Watson’s book, are Donald Barthelme and Kurt Vonnegut, with Chandler complaining about a proofreader at (one Margaret Mutch) and Mark Twain weighing in on the ignorance of proofreaders in general. (40 words)
As in the second of the two below examples, if the two sentences are separated by a semicolon and the second sentence starts with an adverb, then it is preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma. (38 words)
Example sentences (20)
Another feature common to many scripting languages, but not all, is the lack of a line-ending character; in Icon, lines not ended by a semicolon get ended by an implied semicolon if it makes sense.
As in the second of the two below examples, if the two sentences are separated by a semicolon and the second sentence starts with an adverb, then it is preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma.
In the case of nested ifs, a semicolon cannot be used to avoid the dangling else problem (where the inner if does not have an else, but the outer if does) by putatively terminating the nested if with a semicolon – this instead terminates both if clauses.
But also at Founders Row 1 and arriving soon are Fish Taco and Semicolon Cafe.
Moore began seeing that problem firsthand after opening her first Semicolon.
The 15th century saw a boom of inventive punctuation, including the exclamation mark, the semicolon and brackets (or parentheses).
A semicolon can be like a sigh.
During the month of April, Newton is doing semicolon tattoos for $25.
If you believe in Project Semicolon that is cool, but do not do it because of Amy.
In Massachusetts, a semicolon that should have been a comma would have prevented hotels from selling liquor after 11 ; it had the effect of making people buy a lot of drinks before last call.
In “Semicolon,” Cecelia Watson reveals punctuation, as we practice it, to be a relatively young and uneasy art.
The semicolon’s two main detractors, the antiheroes of Watson’s book, are Donald Barthelme and Kurt Vonnegut, with Chandler complaining about a proofreader at (one Margaret Mutch) and Mark Twain weighing in on the ignorance of proofreaders in general.
A quoted string can typically contain anything but a quote, while an unquoted identifier atom can typically contain anything but quote, whitespace characters, parenthesis, brackets, braces, backslash, and semicolon.
A semicolon can be used between two closely related independent clauses, provided they are not already joined by a coordinating conjunction.
A semicolon is still not permitted immediately before the else keyword in an if statement, because the else follows a single statement, not a statement sequence.
A semicolon (;) was produced by printing a comma (,) over a colon (:).
Comment ; comment A semicolon (“ ; ”) starts a comment that continues to the end of the line.
Comments may appear following the semicolon until the end of the line.
Comments seeAlso Up to the R5RS standard, the standard comment in Scheme was a semicolon, which makes the rest of the line invisible to Scheme.
Data The semicolon is often used to separate elements of a string of text.
Common combinations with semicolon
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- the semicolon 9×
- by semicolon 5×
- semicolon and 4×
- semicolon can 3×
- semicolon is 3×
- and semicolon 2×
- semicolon that 2×
- semicolon was 2×
- semicolon by 2×
- semicolon as 2×