colon1
/ˈkəʊlən
/ /ˈkəʊlɒn/noun
1A punctuation mark (:) used to precede a list of items, a quotation, or an expansion or explanation.But it's hard enough for some people to acquire an instinctive sense of the different uses of commas, let alone the employment of colons and semi-colons....
- Programming languages often consist of a seemingly random usage of parenthesis, brackets, asterisks, slashes, colons and semi-colons.
- In less formal writing, the dash is often a catch-all mark to take the place of both colon and semicolon, obviating the need to distinguish them or think about more subtle kinds of punctuation.
1.1A colon used in various technical and formulaic contexts, for example a statement of proportion between two numbers, or to separate hours from minutes (and minutes from seconds) in a numerical statement of time: 10:1 4:30 p.m....
- Time is in army format without the colon between hours and minutes.
Origin
Mid 16th century (as a term in rhetoric denoting a section of a complex sentence, or a pause before it): via Latin from Greek kōlon 'limb, clause'.
Rhymes
colon2
/ˈkəʊlən/ /ˈkəʊlɒn/noun Anatomy
The main part of the large intestine, which passes from the caecum to the rectum and absorbs water and electrolytes from food which has remained undigested.He sustained a punctured colon, a collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver and kidney....
- A second surgery the following day revealed a hole the size of pencil eraser in the colon where the two sections had been sutured together.
- Its goal is the purification and rejuvenation of the colon, because the colon is linked to all the other organs and tissues of the body.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Latin from Greek kolon.
colón3
/kɒˈlɒn/noun (plural colones /kɒˈlɒnɛz/)
The basic monetary unit of Costa Rica and El Salvador, equal to 100 centimos in Costa Rica and 100 centavos in El Salvador.‘People are not interested in dollars or colones; they just want money,’ Barraza declared during the February forum....
- The U.S. dollar is strong there, worth about 400 colones, the Costa Rican currency.
- This sounds like pricey poker, but 30,000 colones is only about $9 US, so I wondered, with fields of about 100 players a night, how the casino was guaranteeing a prize pool of at least $10,000 US.
Origin
From Cristóbal Colón, the Spanish name of Christopher Columbus (see Columbus, Christopher).
Colón4
/kɒˈlɒn/The chief port of Panama, at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal; population 87,800 (est. 2009). It was founded in 1850 by the American William Aspinwall (1807–55), after whom it was originally named.