Marks and their uses (contd.)
The semicolon ( ; )
General use
Here we have a symbol whose definition is becoming a little blurred with time. It is gaining use in place of a colon, but its original (and existing) purpose is to break a sentence up with a pause that is more pronounced than that provided by a comma. What follows a semicolon should be related to what precedes it, but unlike with a colon it need not be a restatement, clarification or list. Ideally, the matter following the semicolon should be a sentence that would stand alone without any preassumed verbs or nouns, which is where it differs from the comma and the colon:
Semicolons and lists
Semicolons are useful when making lists, particularly when the items in a list might contain commas:
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