colon

See also cólon, còlon, colón, and côlon

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊlən

Etymology 1

From Latin cōlon (“a member of a verse of poem”), from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kōlon, “a member, limb, clause, part of a verse”).

Noun

colon (plural colons or (obsolete) cola)

1. (grammar) The punctuation mark ":".
   • 2005, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, Penguin Press, page 15:

     A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause.

2. (rare) The triangular colon (especially in context of not being able to type the actual triangular colon).
3. A rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete.

Translations

punctuation mark

• Arabic: نقطة مزدوجة (ar) (núqTa muzdáwija) f, (dual) نقطتان (ar) (nuqTataan) f
• Asturian: dos puntos (ast) m pl
• Bulgarian: двоеточие (bg) (dvoetóčie) n
• Catalan: dos punts (ca) m pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 冒號 (cmn), 冒号 (cmn) (màohào), ： (cmn)

• Czech: dvojtečka (cs) f
• Dutch: dubbelpunt (nl) n
• Esperanto: dupunkto (eo)
• Finnish: kaksoispiste (fi)
• French: deux points (fr) m pl
• Galician: dous puntos (gl) m pl
• German: Doppelpunkt (de) m, Kolon (de) n
• Greek: άνω και κάτω τελεία (el) (áno και káto teleía) f
• Hebrew: נקודתיים (he) (nekudataim) f pl
• Hungarian: kettőspont (hu)
• Indonesian: titik dua (id)
• Interlingua: duo punctos (ia) pl
• Irish: idirstad (ga) m

• Italian: due punti (it) m pl
• Japanese: コロン (ja) (koron), ： (ja)
• Korean: 쌍점 (雙点, ssangjeom)
• Macedonian: две точки (mk) (dve tóčki) f pl
• Norwegian: kolon (no) n
• Persian: دونقطه (fa) (donoqte)
• Polish: dwukropek (pl) m
• Portuguese: dois pontos (pt) m pl
• Romanian: două puncte (ro) n pl
• Russian: двоеточие (ru) (dvojetóčije) n
• Scottish Gaelic: còilean (gd) m, dà-phuing (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: dvotočka (sh) f, dvotočje (sh) n
• Slovak: dvojbodka (sk) f
• Slovene: dvopičje (sl) n
• Spanish: dos puntos (es) m pl
• Swahili: alama ya mkato (sw)
• Swedish: kolon (sv) n
• Turkish: iki nokta üst üste (tr)
• Welsh: colon (cy) m

See also

• Wikipedia article on colons (in punctuation)
• Wikipedia article on the colon (in anatomy)

Punctuation

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) braces (publishing, music, programming) ( { } ) brackets (publishing, programming) ( [ ] ) colon ( : )

comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― ) ellipsis ( … ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop (British) or period (North America) ( . ) guillemets (publishing) ( « » )

hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) interpunct (publishing, web design) ( · ) interrobang (rare) ( ‽ ) parentheses ( ( ) )

question mark ( ? ) quotation marks (formal, British) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” ) quotation marks (informal, North America, computing) ( " ) ( ' )

semicolon ( ; ) slash ( / ) solidus (dated, mathematics) ( ⁄ ) space (   )

Etymology 2

From Latin cōlon (“large intestine”), from Ancient Greek κόλον (kolon, “the large intestine, also food, meat, fodder”).

Noun

colon (plural colons or (obsolete) cola)

1. (anatomy) Part of the large intestine; the final segment of the digestive system, after (distal to) the ileum and before (proximal to) the anus

Synonyms

• (final segment of digestive system): large bowel

Holonyms

• (segment of digestive system): large intestine

Derived terms

• colectomy
• colic
• colitis
• colonic
• colonitis
• colostomy
• colonic irrigation

Translations

digestive system

• Arabic: قولون (ar) (qulūn) m

  Egyptian Arabic: قولون (qawlūn) m

• Asturian: colon (ast) m
• Bulgarian: колон (bg) (kolon) m
• Catalan: còlon (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: trad. 結腸, simpl. 结肠 (Jyutping: git3 coeng4)

  Mandarin: 结肠 (cmn)

• Czech: tračník (cs) m
• Dutch: karteldarm (nl) m
• Esperanto: kojlo (eo)
• Finnish: koolon (fi)
• French: côlon (fr) m
• Galician: colon (gl) m
• German: Kolon (de) n, Grimmdarm (de) m
• Greek: κόλον (el) (kólon) n
• Hungarian: vastagbél (hu)
• Irish: drólann (ga) f
• Japanese: 大腸 (ja) (daichō)
• Korean: 큰창자 (keunchangja), 대장 (大腸, deajang)
• Lithuanian: gaubtinė žarna (lt) f

• Macedonian: дебело црево (mk) (débelo crévo) n
• Maltese: kolon (mt) m
• Maori: kōpiro nui (mi)
• Marathi: मोठे आतडे (mr) (mothe aataDe) n, बृहदांत्र (mr) (bRuhad aantra) n
• Norwegian: endetarm (no) m
• Occitan: colon (oc) m
• Persian: کولون (fa) (kolon)
• Polish: okrężnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: cólon (pt) m
• Russian: ободочная кишка (ru) (obodóčnaja kišká) f, толстая кишка (ru) (tólstaja kišká) f
• Scottish Gaelic: caolan mòr (gd) m
• Slovak: hrubé črevo (sk) n
• Slovene: debelo črevo (sl) n, danka (sl) f
• Spanish: colon (es) m
• Swahili: alama ya mkato (sw)
• Turkish: kolon (tr)
• Volapük: krasum (vo)
• Welsh: colon (cy) m

See also

• bowel
• large intestine
• rectum

Etymology 3

From French colon.

Noun

colon (plural colons)

1. (obsolete) A husbandman.
2. A European colonial settler, especially in a French colony.
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 28:

     The reaction of the European colons, a mixture of shock and fear, was to demand further draconian measures and to suspend any suggestion of new reforms.

External links

• http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/C/colon.htm Part of a glossary of classical rhetorical terms.
• colon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• colon in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• colon at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• lonco

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin colōnus.

Noun

colon m (plural colons)

1. colonist, settler
2. farmer during the Roman Empire

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Esperanto

Noun

colon

1. accusative singular of colo

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French

Noun

colon m (plural colons)

1. colonist, colonizer
2. camper (child in a colonie de vacances)
3. sharecropper in the system of colonat partiaire

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Italian

Wikipedia ^it

Noun

colon m (invariable)

1. (anatomy) colon

Derived terms

• colectomia
• colite
• colon ascendente
• colon discendente
• colon sigmoideo
• colon trasverso
• colonscopia
• colostomia
• sindrome del colon irritabile

Anagrams

• clono, clonò

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Latin

Alternative forms

• cōlum
• cōlus

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κόλον.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA: /ˈkoː.lon/

Noun

cōlon (genitive cōlī); n, second declension

1. the colon; large intestine
2. colic, a disease of the colon
3. a member or part of a verse of a poem

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	cōlon	cōla
genitive	cōlī	cōlōrum
dative	cōlō	cōlīs
accusative	cōlon	cōla
ablative	cōlō	cōlīs
vocative	cōlon	cōla

Synonyms

• (member of a verse): membrum

Descendants

• English: colon

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Spanish

Noun

colon m (plural colones)

1. (anatomy, grammar, rhetoric) colon