3 Uses, 2 Misuses
The semicolon (;) marks a grammatical separation in the relations of a thought to a degree greater than that expressed by a comma. Between clauses, it especially shows coordination.
475 Use a semicolon to unite two closely connected sentences. This convention is proper even if the second or final independent clause begins with a conjunction.
• The subtle beauties of the heath were lost to Eustacia; she only caught its vapors. (Thomas Hardy)
• The miasma spreads to dramatists and dramatic critics; the former drift into charlatanry and the latter into a cowardly and disgusting dishonesty. (H. L. Mencken)
• He was determined now; it might just make the difference to him in the struggle for power, and besides, it contained the element of revenge. (Winston Churchill)
• Pride and brute tenacity are useful allies in war or any difficult time; but they have their weaknesses. (Sir Richard Livingstone)
• Sand-grouse and flocks of the blue bee-eater will scatter at your approach; a great eagle may rise and soar away; you will see herds of gazelle cantering across the plain. (V. Sackville-West)
• It was begun in February 1811 and finished soon after June 1813; that is to say, it took Jane Austen about twenty-eight months to complete a novel containing some 160 thousand words divided into forty-eight chapters. (Vladimir Nabokov)
476 Use a semicolon to separate items in a list or series when (1) any single element contains an internal comma, (2) the enumeration follows a colon, or (3) the items are broken into subparagraphs.
• The drawing-room began to look empty: the baccarat was discontinued for lack of a banker; more than one person said goodnight of his own accord, and was suffered to depart without expostulation; and in the meanwhile Mr. Morris redoubled in agreeable attentions to those who stayed behind. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
• A syllogism consists of three parts: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion, and for the rhetorician the three appeals are to pathos, ethos, and logos; the color wheel suggests that all colors come from the basic trio of red, yellow, and blue; matter divides into solid, liquid, and gas; that basic building block of matter, the atom, is made up of electron, neutron, and proton. (Brooks Landon)
• Appearing with General Recoil on “Town Meeting of the Upper Air” were to be Mrs. Florence Gill, president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Sons of Original Matrons; Amory Buxton, head of the Economics and Withholding Council of the United Nations; and a young man named Tollip, representing one of the small, ineffectual groups that advocated world federation. (E. B. White)
• She would have given anything to have him tell her that it would be easier to measure the intentions of the wind or the patience of the waves on the shore than the intensity of his love; that there was no winter night cold enough to damp the ever burning fires of his passion; that he spent the days dreaming and nights awake, assailed by the madness of memories and counting, with the anguish of a condemned man, the hours until he would hold her again. (Isabel Allende)
477 In old-fashioned style, it is permissible to use a semicolon where one would normally use a dash today or perhaps a comma—to set off a dependent clause or a phrase by way of explanation or elaboration.
• Golf is a great game and a great art; like a kind of moving outdoor chess. (Patric Dickinson)
• Families live in rooms, one side of which is open; a bed, a table, a baby’s cot set on the floor above a precipice. (Dame Laura Knight)
• His tomb of Wilde could be called the first work of sculpture of our century; while the Rock Drill is more extraordinary still and foreshadows the appalling future to which a major part of the human race is binding itself with vows and catchwords. (Sacheverell Sitwell in reference to Jacob Epstein)
478 Don’t use a semicolon where a colon is needed—especially after a salutation.
Not this: Dear Gordon; . . .
But this: Dear Gordon: . . .
Not this: Daddy and I worked late every afternoon of the war, picking vegetables from our Victory garden; carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, and squash.
But this: Daddy and I worked late every afternoon of the war, picking vegetables from our Victory garden: carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, and squash.
Not this: In fact his ruling was totally unnecessary; for the court found that the People had failed to take reasonable care to ascertain the facts. [A comma would be fine here in place of the semicolon.]
But this: In fact his ruling was totally unnecessary: the court found that the People had failed to take reasonable care to ascertain the facts.
479 Avoid the semicolon where a comma suffices—especially in a list with no internal commas.
Not this: The most exemplary of modern comedians; Charlie Chaplin; managed to incorporate a class struggle within his fragile figure.
But this: The most exemplary of modern comedians, Charlie Chaplin, managed to incorporate a class struggle within his fragile figure.
Not this: Some experts; even among American foreign policy’s sternest critics; accept that self-description.
But this: Some experts, even among American foreign policy’s sternest critics, accept that self-description.
Not this: Our panelists hail from San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Seattle.
But this: Our panelists hail from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle.