semicolon
/ˈsɛmikoʊlən/noun
semicolon is a noun meaning “The punctuation mark ” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-E-M-I-C-O-L-O-N and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of semicolon is semicolons or semicola.
What does semicolon mean?
noun
- 1
The punctuation mark ;.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce semicolon?
- UK /ˌsɛmiˈkəʊlən/
- UK /-ˈkəʊlɒn/
- US /ˈsɛmikoʊlən/
Semicolon has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-semicolon.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of semicolon
- semicolons plural
- semicola plural
- semi-colon
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is semicolon?
Semicolon appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,192nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with semicolon
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: semi-colon (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
How do you abbreviate semicolon?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of semicolon: sem.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Semicolon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense punctuation mark ';':
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | point-virgule |
| German | Strichpunkt, Semikolon |
| Portuguese | ponto e vírgula |
| Spanish | punto y coma |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does semicolon come from?
From semi- + colon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).