Colon (punctuation)

2017-08-24T09:40:12Z

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פ[[File:Colon (punctuation).svg|thumb|40px|right|Colon]]

The '''colon''' ("''':'''") is a [[punctuation]] mark, visually consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical (up/down) line.

== Punctuation ==
=== Use in prose ===
A colon is a more significant pause than a semi-colon. It is often used to contrast two parts of a sentence:
#''It's official: [[Steve McClaren|McClaren]] makes the worst start by an England manager''.<ref>[http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article2393323.ece]</ref>
#''When the door was forced, a scene of chaos was revealed: chairs overturned, drawers pulled out and emptied, broken crockery on the floor...''
#''If you must go, take the following: climbing rope, ice axe, compass, a large-scale map, emergency water and food, and good boots''.
#''Man proposes: God disposes''.
#''The Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart''.

These two examples were lists within a sentence.
A colon may also be used for the following:

=== Use in other kinds of text ===
* Introduction of a definition, such as:
:''A'': the first letter in the Latin alphabet
:''Hypernym of a word'': a word having a wider meaningm than the given one; e.g. ''vehicle'' is a hypernym of ''car''

* Separation of the chapter and the verse number(s) indication in many references to religious scriptures, and also epic poems; it was also used for chapter numbers in [[roman numerals]], as in:
:[[Gospel of John|John]] 3:14–16 (or John iii:14–16) (cf. [[chapters and verses of the Bible]])
:The [[Qur'an]], Sura 5:18

* Separation when reporting time of day hour/minute/second (cf. [[ISO 8601]]), such as:
:The concert finished at 23:45.
:This [[computer file|file]] was last modified today at 11:15:05.
* Separation of a title and the corresponding subtitle, as in:
:''[[Star Wars]] [[Episode IV: A New Hope]]''
* Separation of clauses in a [[periodic sentence]]
* Colons can also be used to start a list, such as, "He provided all of the ingredients: sugar, flour, eggs and butter."
* KERRY-ANNE: They're freckles, Philip. How many more times?

== History ==
The colon's first appearance in English text is marked by the ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' as 1589.

== Diacritical usage ==
[[File:IPA length mark.png|20px|right|The IPA length mark]]
A special double-[[triangle]] colon symbol is used in [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] to indicate that the preceding sound is [[length (phonetics)|long]]. Its form is that of two triangles, each a bit larger than a point of a standard colon, pointing toward each other. It is available in [[Unicode]] as '''modifier letter triangular colon''', Unicode U+02D0 ({{unicode|ː}}). A regular colon is often used as a fallback when this character is not available, or in the practical [[orthography]] of some languages (particularly in Mexico) which have a phonemic long/short distinction in vowels.

== Mathematics ==
The colon is also used in [[mathematics]], [[cartography]], [[scale model|model building]] and other fields to denote a [[ratio]] or a [[scale (ratio)|scale]], as in 3:1 (pronounced "three to one").
[[Unicode]] provides a distinct '''ratio''' character, Unicode U+2236 ({{unicode|∶}}) for mathematical usage.

In many non-[[Anglophone]] countries, the colon is used as a division sign: "''a divided by b''" is written as '''''a : b'''''.

The combination with an equal sign, <math>:=\,</math>, is used for [[definition]]s.

== Computing ==
In [[computing]], the colon [[character (computing)|character]] is represented by [[ASCII]] code 58, and is located at [[Unicode]] [[Universal Character Set|code-point]] U+003A. The full-width (double-byte) equivalent, '''：''', is located at Unicode code point U+FF1A.

The colon is quite often used as a special [[control character]] in many operating systems commands, [[URL]]s, [[computer programming]] [[programming language|languages]], and in the [[path (computing)|path representation]] of several [[file system]]s. It is often used as a single post-fix [[delimiter]], signifying a token keyword had immediately preceded it or the transition from one mode of character string interpretation to another related mode. Some applications, such as the widely used [[MediaWiki]], utilize the colon as both a pre-fix and post-fix delimiter.

For a double-colon, "::" the meaning has included the use of [[ellipsis]], as spanning over omitted text; however, there have been other meanings as well.

== Internet usage ==
On the [[Internet#The name Internet|Internet]] (online chats, email, message boards, etc.) a colon, or multiple colons, is sometimes used to denote an action or emote. In this use, it has the inverse function of quotation marks; denoting actions where unmarked text is assumed to be dialog. For example:

:'''Tom:''' Pluto is so small, it should not be considered a planet. It is tiny!
:'''Rick:''' Oh really? ::Drops Pluto on Tom's head:: Still think it's small now?

Colons may also be used for sounds (as with ":Click:"). Compare to the use of outer [[asterisk]]s (*word*).

It also has the widespread usage of representing two vertically aligned eyes in a [[emoticon]], such as :-), :( :P, :D, :3, etc.

== References ==
<div class="references-small"></div>

[[Category:Punctuation]]
[[Category:Typography]]

TCS Wiki - User contributions [en]

Colon (punctuation)