semicolon
The mark (;) that separates elements of equal grammatical rank.
A semicolon joins two independent clauses that are closely related in meaning: The bakery opens at six; the café opens at seven. It also separates the items of a list whose items already contain commas: Reno, Nevada; Boise, Idaho; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. And it can go before a coordinating conjunction that joins two clauses when those clauses already contain commas: The guests, tired and hungry, arrived at noon; and the hosts, still cooking, asked them to wait. Each use of the semicolon has its own entry, listed under Semicolon.
Examples
UseThe picnic was canceled; rain was forecast. (The semicolon joins two independent clauses.)
UseThe tour stops in Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon. (Semicolons separate list items that already contain commas.)
AvoidWe canceled the picnic; because rain was forecast. (The words after the semicolon form a subordinate clause, not an independent clause; delete the semicolon.)