• A semicolon looks like this:

;

• A semicolon is:
• used to join two sentences more closely than they would be joined if separated by a period
• Between items in a series or listing containing internal punctuation, especially parenthetic commas, where the semicolons function as serial commas:
• Several fast food restaurants can be found within the following cities: London, England; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; Madrid, Spain.
• Between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction, when the two parts of the sentence are balanced, opposed or contradictory:
• My wife would like tea; I would prefer coffee.
• Between independent clauses linked with a transitional phrase or a conjunctive adverb:
• Everyone knows he is guilty of committing the crime; of course, it will never be proven.

• I am alone; my wife had to leave.
• I traveled to London, England; Tijuana, Mexico; and Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Lisa scored 2,570,845,770 points; Marcia, 2,395,312,860; and John, 1,984,726,640.
• The people present were Jamie, who came from New Zealand; John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man.
• Here are three examples of familiar sequences: one, two, and three; a, b, and c; first, second, and third.
• She stood at the edge, deciding her course of action; changed her mind and walked home.
• I went to the basketball court; I was told it was closed for cleaning.
• I told Kate she's running for the hills; I wonder if she knew I was joking.
• At the mall I bought four things; my sister bought only two things.
• It can occur in both melodic and harmonic lines; however, it is subject to certain restraints.