colon

Other forms: colons; colones

In punctuation, a colon is the mark made by stacking two periods (:). The colon can be used to separate the hour and minutes in time (7:30 a.m.) or to introduce a list or a quotation.

A colon is also a unit of money in both Costa Rica and El Salvador. It equals 100 centimos in the former and 100 centavos in the latter. When you travel to Costa Rica, you can trade dollars for colons. In medical terms, your colon is part of your digestive system, and its purpose is to extract water from solid waste. In humans, there are four parts of the colon: ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid.

Definitions of colon

1. noun

   the part of the large intestine between the cecum and the rectum; it extracts moisture from food residues before they are excreted
   types:

   megacolon

   an abnormal enlargement of the colon; can be congenital (as in Hirschsprung's disease) or acquired (as when children refuse to defecate)

   transverse colon

   the part of the large intestine that extends across the abdominal cavity and joins the ascending to the descending colon

   ascending colon

   the part of the large intestine that ascends from the cecum to the transverse colon

   descending colon

   the part of the large intestine that descends from the transverse colon to the sigmoid colon

   sigmoid colon, sigmoid flexure

   the s-shaped curve between the descending colon and the rectum

   type of:

   large intestine

   beginning with the cecum and ending with the rectum; includes the cecum and the colon and the rectum; extracts moisture from food residues which are later excreted as feces
2. noun

   a punctuation mark (:) used after a word introducing a series or an example or an explanation (or after the salutation of a business letter)
   type of:

   punctuation, punctuation mark

   the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases