colon

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊ.lən/, /ˈkəʊ.lɒn/
• (US) enPR: kō'lən, IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊ.lən/, /ˈkɔ.lən/, [ˈkʰɔ.ɫn̩]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊlən, -əʊlɒn

From Latin cōlon (“a member of a verse of poem”), from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon, “a member, limb, clause, part of a verse”).

colon (plural colons or cola)

2. The punctuation mark ⟨:⟩.
   • 2005, William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, Penguin Press, page 15:

     A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause.

3. (rare) The triangular colon (especially in context of not being able to type the actual triangular colon).
4. (rhetoric) A rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete.
5. (palaeography) A clause or group of clauses written as a line, or taken as a standard of measure in ancient manuscripts or texts.

• (punctuation mark): colon-point (obsolete)

• Wikipedia article on colons (in punctuation)

Punctuation

From Latin cŏlon (“large intestine”), from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon, “the large intestine, also food, meat, fodder”).

colon (plural colons or cola or coli)

2. (anatomy) Part of the large intestine; the final segment of the digestive system, after (distal to) the ileum and before (proximal to) the rectum. (Because the colon is the largest part of the large intestine (constituting most of it), it is often treated as synonymous therewith in broad or casual usage.)
   • 2025 March 21, Katia Hetter, “Reduce your risk of colon and rectal cancer with these basic steps”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Colorectal cancer refers to colon cancer, which starts in the colon, and rectal cancer, which starts in the rectum.

• ascending colon
• transverse colon
• descending colon
• sigmoid colon

• (segment of digestive system): large intestine, large bowel

• Wikipedia article on the colon (in anatomy)
• bowel
• large intestine
• rectum

From French colon.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɒn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈloʊn/,^[1] /koʊ.loʊn/^[2]

colon (plural colons)

1. (obsolete) A husbandman.
2. A European colonial settler, especially in a French colony.
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 28:

     The reaction of the European colons, a mixture of shock and fear, was to demand further draconian measures and to suspend any suggestion of new reforms.

• colone

• https://web.archive.org/web/20050326041700/http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/C/colon.htm Part of a glossary of classical rhetorical terms.
• “colon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “colon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “colon”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Locon, locon, lonco

colon m (plural cólones)

1. (anatomy) colon (digestive system)

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuˈlon]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [koˈlon]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Borrowed from Latin colōnus.

colon m (plural colons, feminine colona, feminine plural colones)

1. colonist, settler
2. farmer during the Roman Empire

• colònia

Borrowed from Spanish colón.

colon m (plural colons)

1. (numismatics) colón (currency unit of Costa Rica, and formerly of El Salvador)

• “colon”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡solon/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -olon
• Syllabification: co‧lon

colon

1. accusative singular of colo

Learned borrowing from Latin colōnus.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ̃/

colon m (plural colons)

1. colonist, colonizer, colonial settler
   • 2009, Laurent Lamoine, Le Pouvoir locale en Gaule romaine, page 240:

     Sous les auspices du dictateur A. Cornelius Cossus, les Romains viennent de remporter une victoire sur leurs voisins Volsques, Latins et Herniques, associés aux colons romains en rébellion de Circéi et Vélitrae.

     Under the dictator A. Cornelius Cossus's auspice, the Romans had just achieved a victory over their Volscian, Latin, and Hernician neighbours, associated with rebellious Roman colonists of Circeii and Velitrae.

   • 1925, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, “V - Les civilisateurs”, in Le procès de la colonisation française; translated as “V — The Civilizers”, in French Colonization on Trial (Selected Works of Hồ Chí Minh; 1)‎^[2], 1st edition, Paris: Foreign Languages Press, 2021, page 288:

     Qu'ils soient militaires ou colons, ils ne conçoivent pas ordinairement d'autres formes de relations avec l'indigène que celles dont ils usent avec leurs domestiques.

     Whether they are military men or colonial settlers, they normally visualize no other kind of relations with the natives than those they have with their servants.

2. camper (child in a colonie de vacances)
   • 2015, José Casatéjada, Via Compostela: Des Monts du Velay à la Costa da Morte, page 243:

     Une fois encore, ils me ramènent à mon enfance, aux colonies de vacances. Avec les autres petits colons, mes frères et moi trottions sur les chemins de traverse pour aller jouer dans les près ou à la rivière.

     Once again, they take me back to my childhood, to the summer camps. Together with other little campers, my brothers and I trotted on the shortcuts to go play in the meadows or by the river.

3. sharecropper in the system of colonat partiaire
4. (vulgar, Canada) hillbilly, hick

• colonie
• coloniser

See côlon.

colon

1. misspelling of côlon

• “colon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Abbreviation of colonel.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ̃/

colon m

1. (military slang) colonel

• mon colon (interjection)

colon (uncountable)

1. (anatomy) colon

Unadapted borrowing from Latin colon, from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.lon/
• Rhymes: -ɔlon
• Hyphenation: cò‧lon

colon m (invariable)

1. (anatomy) colon (part of the body)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cōlon, from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.lon/
• Rhymes: -ɔlon
• Hyphenation: cò‧lon

colon m (plural cola)

1. colon (punctuation mark)

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish colón.

• IPA^(key): /koˈlɔn/
• Rhymes: -ɔn
• Hyphenation: co‧lòn

colon m (plural colones)

1. alternative form of colón

• clono, clonò

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔ.ɫɔn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔː.lon]

colon n (genitive colī); second declension

1. (anatomy) The colon; large intestine
2. colic, a disease of the colon

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type).

From Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon).

• cōlum
• cōlus

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkoː.ɫɔn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔː.lon]

cōlon n (genitive cōlī); second declension

1. a member or part of a verse of a poem

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type).

• (member of a verse): membrum

• → English: colon

• “colon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “colon”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “colon”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from French côlon.

colon m (plural coloni)

1. colon

• IPA^(key): /ˈkolon/ [ˈko.lõn]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -olon
• Syllabification: co‧lon

From Latin cōlon, from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon).

colon m (plural cólones)

1. (grammar) colon (punctuation mark)

From Latin cŏlon, from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon).

colon m (plural cólones)

1. (anatomy) colon (part of the large intestine)

• colonoscopia, colonoscopía
• colonoscopio
• megacolon
• mesocolon

• “colon”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔlɔn/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkoːlɔn/, /ˈkɔlɔn/

Borrowed from English colon from Latin cōlon, from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon).

colon m (plural colonau)

1. (grammar) colon (punctuation mark)

• hanner colon (“semicolon”)

Borrowed from English colon from Latin cŏlon, from Ancient Greek κόλον (kólon).

colon m or f

1. (anatomy) colon (part of the large intestine)

colon f or m (plural colonnau)

1. alternative form of colofn (“column”)

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “colon”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• Delyth Prys; J.P.M. Jones; Owain Davies; Gruffudd Prys (2006), Y Termiadur: termau wedi'u safoni; standardised terminology‎^[3] (in Welsh), Cardiff: Awdurdod cymwysterau, cwricwlwm ac asesu Cymru (Qualifications curriculum & assessment authority for Wales), →ISBN
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “colon”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies