How to Use semicolon in a Sentence

semicolon

noun
  • Here are the facts of the case, for those who may have been pinned under a semicolon.
    — Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2017
  • The person is the author and the semicolon is their life.
    — Becca Longmire, PEOPLE, 9 Dec. 2025
  • My father, who was a fine slinger of verbiage, was a huge fan of the semicolon.
    — Murr Brewster, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Feb. 2023
  • And on top of everything else, the semicolon is in decline.
    — Literary Hub, 21 June 2025
  • Both kinds begin with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;).
    — Pstatz, WIRED, 15 Feb. 2010
  • Isn’t that an excuse to haul out the heavy equipment and promote the commas to semicolons?
    — Mary Norris, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2019
  • The semicolon is a wily punctuation mark.
    — Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 20 Sep. 2025
  • The semicolon is a wily punctuation mark.
    — Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Look for Saturn and the crescent moon to form their version of a semicolon in the southwest evening sky.
    — David Streit, Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2023
  • Some people believe that semicolons are just a crutch used by journalists who want to appear smart; that just isn't true.
    — Michael Schaub, latimes.com, 28 June 2019
  • Everything is of total importance—the first chapter of the book and a semicolon.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5 Jan. 2023
  • Many lines end with a period, while others end with a semicolon, a relative of the period.
    — Sandra Lim, New York Times, 28 July 2022
  • The semicolon represents the power and strength of living in your light, and this beautiful piece is a priceless reminder.
    — Glamour, 21 May 2021
  • Instead of a period, authors use the semicolon to continue a sentence.
    — Mehera Bonner, Marie Claire, 10 Apr. 2017
  • Pity the forlorn semicolon; battered by critics from every direction.
    — Gary Gilson, Star Tribune, 26 June 2021
  • Michael Bierut, a partner at Pentagram, the global design firm, was given the semicolon.
    — Penelope Green, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2023
  • Get on top of the pen good-oh, fill in here and there, scattergun semicolons, while my heart pushes hard in protest against the seesawing wagon of ribs that encloses it.
    — Claire-Louise Bennett, Harper's Magazine, 10 Aug. 2022
  • The semicolon is a symbol used as a message against suicide and other mental health issues and represents choosing to start a new chapter in your life.
    — Jasmine Gomez, Seventeen, 16 May 2019
  • On his right arm is a semicolon, a common suicide awareness tattoo in the color teal for post-traumatic stress disorder awareness.
    — Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2022
  • Fans will spot things like like the number 92 for the year she was born, semicolon tattoo from her 13RW days, and an arrow.
    — Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 3 Dec. 2019
  • Where has the semicolon gone during this enjoyable screed against overreaching grammarians?
    — Wendy Smith, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Aug. 2019
  • Watson’s examples of virtuoso semicolon users usually have a strong preference one way or the other.
    — Christopher Tayler, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Time and time again, loyal viewers get invested in a series, only to be left hanging with a jaw-dropping finale that feels more like a semicolon than a period.
    — James Mercadante, EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Which is why, throughout my long tenure as a journalist, my colleagues and I almost never dotted sentences with anything flashier than a semicolon.
    — Danny Heitman, Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2025
  • In fact, Gottlieb and Caro had a long history of antagonism, squabbling over things large and small, including the semicolon.
    — Mary Norris, The New Yorker, 30 June 2022
  • The shift from semicolon to parentheses has provoked public dissatisfaction.
    — New York Times, 2 Apr. 2022
  • For two weeks, 196 countries had huddled in countless meetings, wrangling over dense pages of text, scrutinizing every semicolon.
    — Fiona Harvey, Wired, 26 Dec. 2020
  • The text is repetitive but disciplined, riddled with voids and awash with semicolons, which often begin and end a chapter; Steinberg can go pages without a period.
    — Lidija Haas, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Currently, Windows 10 users can open the emoji window by typing WIN and the semicolon (;) keys at the same time.
    — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, 11 Oct. 2019
  • That itch can be as small as being annoyed at semicolons having to be placed after every statement, or as large as a philosophical argument about the purpose of computation.
    — Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 23 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'semicolon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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