co ‧ lon /ˈkəʊlən $ ˈkoʊ-/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1: Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: Greek kolon 'large intestine, food, meat' ]
[ Sense 2: Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: 'part of a poem' , from Greek kolon 'arm or leg, part of a poem' ]
1 . technical the lower part of the ↑ bowel s , in which food is changed into waste matter
2 . the sign (:) that is used in writing and printing to introduce an explanation, example, ↑ quotation (1) etc ⇨ semicolon
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THESAURUS
■ types of punctuation mark
▪ apostrophe the sign ' that is used to show that one or more letters or numbers have been left out, as in don’t , or used before ‘s’ to show that something belongs to someone or something, as in Mark’s dog
▪ brackets British English , parentheses AmE and BrE formal a pair of signs used for enclosing information that interrupts a sentence
▪ colon the sign : that is used to introduce an explanation, example, quotation etc
▪ semicolon the sign ; that is used to separate words in a list, or different parts of a sentence that can be understood separately
▪ comma the sign , that is used to separate things in a list, or between two clauses in a sentence
▪ hyphen the sign – that is used to join words or syllables
▪ dash the sign — that is used to separate two closely related parts of a sentence, especially in more informal English
▪ full stop British English , period American English the sign . that is used to mark the end of a sentence or the short form of a word
▪ exclamation mark British English , exclamation point American English the sign ! that is used after a sentence or word that expresses surprise, anger, or excitement
▪ question mark the sign ? that is used at the end of a question
▪ quotation marks ( also inverted commas British English ) a pair of signs ‘ and ’ that are put around words, especially to show that you are quoting what someone has said