Adjacent Words

Colon definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COLON, n.
1. In anatomy, the largest of the intestines, or rather the largest division of the intestinal canal; beginning at the ceecum, and ascending by the right kidney, it passes under the hollow part of the liver, and the bottom of the stomach, to the spleen; thence descending by the left kidney, it passes, in the form of an S, to the upper part of the os sacrum, where, from its straight course, the canal takes the name of rectum.
2. In grammar, a point or character formed thus [:], used to mark a pause, greater than that of a semicolon, but less than that of a period; or rather it is used when the sense of the division of a period is complete, so as to admit a full point; but something is added by way of illustration, or the description is continued by an additional remark, without a necessary dependence on the foregoing members of the sentence. Thus,
A brute arrives at a point of perfection he can never pass: in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of.
The colon is often used before an address, quotation or example. Mr. Gray was followed by Mr. Erskine, who spoke thus: I rise to second the motion of my honorable friend. But the propriety of this depends on the pause, and this depends on the form of introducing the quotation; for after say, said, or a like word, the colon is not used, and seems to be improper. Thus in our version of the scriptures, such members are almost invariably followed by a comma. But Jesus said to them, Ye know not what ye ask.
The use of the colon is not uniform; nor is it easily defined and reduced to rules. Indeed the use of it might be dispensed with without much inconvenience.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the part of the large intestine between the cecum and the rectum; it extracts moisture from food residues before they are excreted
2: the basic unit of money in El Salvador; equal to 100 centavos [syn: colon, El Salvadoran colon]
3: the basic unit of money in Costa Rica; equal to 100 centimos [syn: colon, Costa Rican colon]
4: a port city at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal [syn: Colon, Aspinwall]
5: a punctuation mark (:) used after a word introducing a series or an example or an explanation (or after the salutation of a business letter)

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural colons or cola) Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, from Greek kolon Date: 14th century the part of the large intestine that extends from the cecum to the rectum II. noun (plural colons or cola) Etymology: Latin, part of a poem, from Greek k?lon limb, part of a strophe Date: circa 1550 1. plural cola a rhythmical unit of an utterance; specifically in Greek or Latin verse a system or series of from two to not more than six feet having a principal accent and forming part of a line 2. plural colons a. a punctuation mark : used chiefly to direct attention to matter (as a list, explanation, quotation, or amplification) that follows b. the sign : used between the parts of a numerical expression of time in hours and minutes (as in
1:15) or in hours, minutes, and seconds (as in
8:
25:30), in a bibliographical reference (as in Nation
130:20), in a ratio where it is usually read as “to” (as in
4:1 read “four to one”), or in a proportion where it is usually read as “is to” or when doubled as “as” (as in
2:
1::
8:4 read “two is to one as eight is to four”) III. noun Etymology: French, from Latin colonus Date: 1888 a colonial farmer or plantation owner

Britannica Concise

Segment that makes up most of the large intestine. Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, the colon technically excludes the cecum (a pouch at the beginning of the large intestine), rectum, and anal canal. It runs up the right side of the abdomen (ascending colon), across it (transverse colon), and down the left side (descending colon); its last section (sigmoid colon) joins the rectum. It has no digestive function but lubricates waste products, absorbs remaining fluids and salts, and stores waste products until excretion. Problems involving the colon include colitis, constipation and diarrhea, gas discomfort, megacolon (enlarged colon), and cancer.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. a punctuation mark (:), used esp. to introduce a quotation or a list of items or to separate clauses when the second expands or illustrates the first; also between numbers in a statement of proportion (as in
10:1) and in Biblical references (as in Exodus
3:2). Etymology: L f. Gk kolon limb, clause 2. n. Anat. the lower and greater part of the large intestine, from the caecum to the rectum. Derivatives: colonic adj. Etymology: ME, ult. f. Gk kolon

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Condor Con"dor (k[o^]n"d[o^]r; in defs. 2 & 3, k[-o]n"d[-o]r), n. 1. (Zo["o]l.) The California vulture. [Local, U. S.] 2. A gold coin of Chile, bearing the figure of a condor, and equal to twenty pesos. It contains 10.98356 grams of gold, and is equivalent to about $7.29. Called also colon. 3. A gold coin of Colombia equivalent to about $9.65. It is no longer coined.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Colon Co"lon, n. [L. colon, colum, limb, member, the largest of the intestines, fr. Gr. ?, and in sense of the intestine, ?: cf. F. colon. Cf. Colic.] 1. (Anat.) That part of the large intestines which extends from the c[ae]cum to the rectum. Note: [See Illust of Digestion.] 2. (Gram.) A point or character, formed thus [:], used to separate parts of a sentence that are complete in themselves and nearly independent, often taking the place of a conjunction.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(colons) 1. A colon is the punctuation mark : which you can use in several ways. For example, you can put it before a list of things or before reported speech. N-COUNT 2. Your colon is the part of your intestine above your rectum. ...cancer of the colon. N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

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