Colon

How to spell colon

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce colon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does colon mean?

1. nounThe punctuation mark (: ) used to introduce a list, an explanation, or a quotation.
2. nounThe main part of the large intestine, running from the caecum to the rectum.

Colon in a sentence

• Place a colon before the list of ingredients.

• The surgeon removed a small section of the colon during the operation.

• The style guide says a colon should follow the heading.

• A fibre-rich diet supports a healthy colon.

Where does colon come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Colon comes from the Greek word kolon, and the spelling actually conceals two related but distinct origin stories that happened to land on the same form. For the punctuation mark, kolon meant a 'limb', and by extension a section or clause of a sentence; ancient grammarians used it to mark off a complete rhythmic portion of a line, and from the 1500s English adopted it for the familiar two-dot mark that introduces a list or an explanation. For the body part, Greek kolon (sometimes kolon enteron) named the large intestine, and this passed through Latin colon into medical English by the late 1300s. Because both threads arrive through Latin from the same Greek spelling, English ended up with a single word covering punctuation and anatomy. The single 'l' and the 'on' ending are the usual spelling traps, since the related adjective 'colonic' and the unrelated 'colonel' or 'colony' tempt writers toward doubled letters.

How the word is built

• colon (from Greek kolon: a limb, a clause of a sentence, or the large intestine)