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This list gives those most commonly encountered with Latin script. For a far more comprehensive list of symbols and signs, see List of Unicode characters . For other languages and symbol sets (especially in mathematics and science), see below .
The semicolon; (or semi-colon [1]) is a symbol commonly used as orthographic punctuation. In the English language , a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thought, such as when restating the preceding idea with a different expression.
The semicolon is required. Because numbers are harder for humans to remember than names, character entity references are most often written by humans, while numeric character references are most often produced by computer programs. [1]
The compound point is an obsolete typographical construction. Keith Houston reported that this form of punctuation doubling, which involved the comma dash (,—), the semicolon dash (;—), the colon dash, or "dog's bollocks" (:—), and less often the stop-dash (.—) arose in the seventeenth century, citing examples from as early as 1622 (in an edition of Othello).
semicolon terminated Eiffel: newline terminated semicolon Erlang: colon separated, period terminated F#: newline terminated semicolon Fortran: newline terminated semicolon Forth: semicolons terminate word definitions. space terminates word use GFA BASIC: newline terminated Go: semicolon separated (inserted by compiler) Haskell (in do-notation ...
A leading semicolon;, in column 1 of a line, causes the line to be displayed as the name part of a description list. These lists contain a name, followed by one or more descriptions that apply to it (e.g. in a glossary). These descriptions are indicated by starting them with :.
Other symbols for division include the slash or solidus /, the colon:, and the fraction bar (the horizontal bar in a vertical fraction). [3] [4] The ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus / or "fraction bar" for division, or the "colon" : for ratios; it says that the ÷ sign "should not be used" for division. [1]
North American printing usually puts full stops and commas (but not colons, semicolons, exclamation or question marks) inside the closing quotation mark, whether it is part of the original quoted material or not. [14] [15] Styles elsewhere vary widely and have different rationales for placing it inside or outside, often a matter of house style.