As a
punctuation mark, the colon is most commonly used to introduce a
list of
parallel phrases. The items in this list are most often separated by
commas; however, if they contain commas themselves they are separated by
semicolons. A colon may also be used to introduce a
bulleted or
numbered list.
This is an example of the use of the colon, restating the above:
- A colon may be used with a list of comma-separated items: a cat, a dog, and a hamster.
- It may also be used with semicolon-separated items: a cat, who was orange; a dog, who was barking up the wrong tree; and a hamster, who was dancing.
- It may also be used to introduce a bulleted or numbered list.