Unsupported titles/:

See also: ׃ [U+05C3 HEBREW PUNCTUATION SOF PASUQ], ꞉ [U+A789 MODIFIER LETTER COLON], ː [U+02D0 MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON], ։ [U+0589 ARMENIAN FULL STOP], ⁚ [U+205A TWO DOT PUNCTUATION], and ∶ [U+2236 RATIO]

:	U+003A, : COLON

← 9
[U+0039]

Basic Latin

; →
[U+003B]

Character variations

﹕	U+FE55, ﹕ SMALL COLON

← ﹔
[U+FE54]

Small Form Variants

﹖ →
[U+FE56]

：	U+FF1A, ： FULLWIDTH COLON

← ９
[U+FF19]

Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms

； →
[U+FF1B]

︓	U+FE13, ︓ PRESENTATION FORM FOR VERTICAL COLON

← ︒
[U+FE12]

Vertical Forms

︔ →
[U+FE14]

Translingual

Etymology

A simplification of the punctus elevatus, ⟨⹎⟩.

Description

Two vertically-aligned dots.

Symbol

:

(mathematics) division
Alternative form: ∶ (U+2236 RATIO)

6 : 2 = 3

Punctuation mark

: (English name colon)

Introduces a quotation.
Mary gave advice to her children: a stitch in time saves nine.

Patient: Is there a doctor in here?
Introduces a sentence with the role of apposition with respect to the previous one.
Luruns could not speak: he was drunk.
Introduces the logical consequence, or effect, of a fact stated before.
There was only one possible explanation: the train had never arrived
Separation of clauses in a periodic sentence.
Separates hours, minutes, and seconds when reporting time.
Synonym: .

The train leaves at 5:40.
Separates numbers in a ratio.
Alternative form: ∶ (U+2236 RATIO)

There is a 5:4 ratio of boys to girls in my class.
Separation of a title and the corresponding subtitle.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(information science) Separate elements of a bibliographic reference, such as chapter and verses of the bible, or volumes and pages of a work.
John 3:14–16 (or John III:14–16)
Used after a letter as a nonstandard representation of an umlaut or diaeresis, when technical limitations prevent the use of one.
- 1990 January 26, porpentine [username], “Re: Mommy! Gene hit me first!”, in alt.rock-n-roll.metal‎^[1] (Usenet; in English):
  I agree, most of the people who are listening to Whitesnake/Skid Row/Guns-n-Roses-Dude/insert_your_favorite_cheese_metal_band now will have forgotten about them in a few years. I don't think you can say the same of, say, Fates Warning, King's X, or the older metal bands (Black Sabbath version 1, Blue O:yster Cult, Moto:rhead, arguably Aerosmith).
(taxonomy) Separates different levels of an abbreviated taxonomy.
(music) A pointing mark in Anglican chant, which marks the place which splits a verse in two, corresponding to the central double barline in a two-part chant (unless otherwise indicated by ‖).
Coordinate terms: |, ', *, ⋅, —, ‖, †
Used in : :.
For the IPA triangular colon symbol, which marks long vowels, see ː.
For the "modifier colon" symbol, used in some languages for long vowels, see ꞉.
For the Armenian full stop, see ։.
For the Hebrew and Aramaic punctuation mark which marks the end of a passage, see ׃.
For the six-dot Braille characters consisting of two vertically-aligned dots, see ⠃, ⠅, ⠆, ⠘, ⠨, ⠰.
For the eight-dot Braille extension characters consisting of two vertically-aligned dots, see ⡁, ⡂, ⡄, ⢈, ⢐, ⢠.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Unsupported titles/:.

Related terms

(diacritical mark): ', "
(mathematics): ÷

Symbol

:

(computing) Indicates a storage or media drive letter (with or without path).
C: is the default system drive on Windows.
(networking) Separates the parts of an IPv6 address.
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329
(Internet) Represents two eyes vertically aligned, in order to form emoticons.

Finnish

Punctuation mark

:

Connects a suffix or clitic to a number, abbreviation, initialism or individual letter.
Hinta on TKY:n jäsenille 10 €, muille 20 €.
The price is € 10 for the members of TKY, € 20 for all others.

SAK:kin on samaa mieltä.
Also SAK shares that opinion.

Usage notes

If a numeric expression consists of a number and a headword which indicates the case, the numeral is written without the case suffix:

Ostin 10 000 [kymmenellätuhannella] eurolla Nokian osakkeita.
Ostin 10 000 €:lla Nokian osakkeita.

I bought € 10,000 worth of Nokia's shares.

If a numeric expression consists of a number and a headword, and the numeral is in nominative singular, the headword is in partitive singular (base case), and the headword is an abbreviation, the partitive case is not indicated:

Osakkeet maksoivat 10 000 € [kymmenentuhatta euroa].

The shares cost € 10,000.

Et ole vielä maksanut niitä 10 000:ta [kymmentätuhatta] euroa, jotka olet minulle velkaa.

You have not yet paid that € 10,000 which you owe me.

If an abbreviation or initialism is read as a word (as opposed to letter by letter), the colon is not used:

Hinta on ERTOn jäsenille 10 €, muille 20 €.

The price is € 10 for the members of ERTO, € 20 for all others.

Latin

Punctuation mark

:

(Medieval Latin, New Latin) Used to mark abbreviations.
- c. 16th century, manuscript, quoted in “Elizabeth I: Translations, 1544–1589” (in English), Janel Mueller, Joshua Scodel, editors, 2009, →ISBN, page 460:
  This verse translation was entered in the manuscript in a secretary hand that Rugh Hughey, the editor of the Arundel Harington manuscript, tentatively assigned to the mid- or late sixteenth century; in the right margin at the end of the text, an italic hand of uncertain date has written “E.R. Ꝑ re:”. […] these letters can be expanded to “per re-----.”
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1686, John Riley, portrait of Bridget Holmes (image), inscription at the bottom left corner:
  BRİDGET. HOLMES / ETA:^S SUÆ: 96 / A:D:1686:·
  BRIDGET. HOLMES / ETA[TI]S SUAE 96 / A[NNO] D[OMINI] 1686:·
- 1756 January 28, Leopold Lamprecht, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s baptismal record (image)
  Joan̄es Chryſoſt: Wolfgangus Theophilus fil: leg: / Nob: D: Leopoldus Mozart Aulæ Musicus, et Maria An̄a Pertlin giuges.
  Joannes Chrysost[omus] Wolfgangus Theophilus fil[ius] leg[itimus] / Nob[ilis] D[ominus] Leopoldus Mozart Aulae Musicus, et Maria Anna Pertlin giuges.
- 1817, sovereign (British coin), obverse inscription (image)
  GEORGIUS III D:G:BRITANNIAR:REX F:D:
  GEORGIUS III D[EI] G[RATIA] BRITANNIAR[UM] REX F[IDEI] D[EFENSOR]
  
  George III, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith.
(Old Latin) A word divider.
- 7th century BC, Praeneste fibula:
  𐌌𐌀𐌍𐌉𐌏𐌔:𐌌𐌄𐌃:𐌅𐌇𐌄⁝𐌅𐌇𐌀𐌊𐌄𐌃:𐌍𐌖𐌌𐌀𐌔𐌉𐌏𐌉
  MANIOS:MED:FHE⁝FHAKED:NVMASIOI
  Manios made me for Numasios.

Synonyms

(word boundary): ] [, ·, ⁝

References

Gavinelli, Simona (2020) “Early Carolingian: Italy”, in The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography, →ISBN, pages 268–9

Northern Sami

Punctuation mark

:

Connects a suffix or clitic to a number, abbreviation, initialism or individual letter.
Filbma lea čájehuvvon TV:s ― The film has been shown on TV

Mis lea šiehtadus NSR:in ― We have an agreement with the NSR [the Norwegian Sámi Association]

Son riegádii 1998:s ― She was born in 1998

Goas almmuhii son CD:a? ― When did he release the CD?

Swedish

Punctuation mark

:

Connects a suffix or clitic to a number, abbreviation or initialism.
EU:s vinmarknad ― The EU's wine market

Tv:n är trasig. ― The TV is broken.

den 13:e mars ― March the 13th

två vd:ar ― two CEOs
Marks the contraction of a word, separating the beginning and end (first and last letter, replacing the period of a standard abbreviation in front of an ending)
c:a 50 mil (cirka) ― circa 50 miles

Vårdsnäs k:a (kyrka) ― Vårdsnäs church

S:t Petersburg (Sankt) ― Saint Petersburg

Kungl. Maj:ts resolution (Majestäts) ― His Majesty's resolution (a government decree)

Bibliografi till förf:s 60-årsdag (författarens, standard abbreviation förf.) ― Bibliography to the author's 60th anniversary