Editing Colon (punctuation) (section)

{{Short description|Punctuation mark with two dots}}
{{About|the punctuation mark|a colon-like character used as an alphabetic letter in some languages, rather than as punctuation|Colon (letter)|other uses|Colon (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox punctuation mark|mark={{not a typo|&colon;}}<!--Changing to regular colon breaks the infobox-->|name=Colon
|unicode={{unichar|003A|html=}}
| variant1     = ː 
| caption1     = [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] [[vowel length|triangular colon]]
| variant2     = ꞉
| caption2     = [[Colon (letter)|letter colon]]
| variant3     = {{not a typo|:}}
| caption3     = [[Ratio]]
}}

The '''colon''', {{char|''':'''}}, is a [[punctuation]] mark consisting of two equally sized dots aligned vertically. A colon often precedes an explanation, a list,<ref name=PunctuationGuide>{{cite web |title=Colon |url=https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/colon.html |website=The Punctuation Guide |access-date=22 November 2020 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111194829/https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/colon.html |url-status=live}}</ref> or a quoted sentence.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Economist Style Guide |url=https://ukshop.economist.com/products/the-economist-style-guide-12th-edition-e-book |section=punctuation |access-date=2021-05-23 |archive-date=2021-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.achive.org/web/20210523100728/https://ukshop.economist.com/products/the-economist-style-guide-12th-edition-e-book |url-status=live}}</ref> It is also used between hours and minutes in time,<ref name="PunctuationGuide"/> between certain elements in [[medical journal]] citations,<ref>{{Citation
|title=International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Sample References
|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
|publisher=[[United States National Library of Medicine]]
|access-date=2013-03-01
|archive-date=2020-02-17
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217002459/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> between [[chapters and verses of the Bible|chapter and verse]] in [[Bible citation]]s,<ref>{{cite web |title=How to Cite the Bible*. Guide for Four Citation Styles: MLA, APA, SBL, CHICAGO |publisher=[[John Brown University]] |url=https://www.jbu.edu/assets/writing-center/resource/how_to_cite_the_bible.pdf |website=jbu.edu |access-date=2021-05-23 |archive-date=2021-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928021857/https://www.jbu.edu/assets/writing-center/resource/How_to_Cite_the_Bible.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> between two numbers in a [[ratio]], and, in the US, for [[salutation]]s in business letters and other formal letters.<ref name="PunctuationGuide"/>