Question

semicolon Some young vandal had done a search-and-replace on Mr. Marsh's computer file, and in place of every semicolon was the mysterious message “Hendrix RULES!” semicolon*

Accepted Answer

The punctuation mark ; , used chiefly to separate major sentence elements such as independent clauses. The semicolon was introduced into modern type by an Italian printer around 1566. But since it's actually the same symbol as the ancient Greek question mark, it's older than the colon (:), which first appears around 1450. Don't mix the two up. A colon introduces something: usually a list, sometimes a statement. A semicolon separates two independent but related clauses; it may also replace the comma to separate items in a complicated list

word	semicolon
definition	The punctuation mark ; , used chiefly to separate major sentence elements such as independent clauses.
eg_sentence	Some young vandal had done a search-and-replace on Mr. Marsh's computer file, and in place of every semicolon was the mysterious message “Hendrix RULES!”
explanation	The semicolon was introduced into modern type by an Italian printer around 1566. But since it's actually the same symbol as the ancient Greek question mark, it's older than the colon (:), which first appears around 1450. Don't mix the two up. A colon introduces something: usually a list, sometimes a statement. A semicolon separates two independent but related clauses; it may also replace the comma to separate items in a complicated list
IPA	semicolon*

Semicolon Separate Independent Colon Punctuation Mark Chiefly Major