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The colon is often used to introduce a list of items. For example:

The animal enclosure contains four interesting species: crocodiles, gorillas, tigers, and lions.

This sentence contains a list of four animals. The first part of the sentence tells you that there will be four animals; then the colon tells you "here are the four animals".

You can also use a colon to introduce an explanation or a definition of something. For instance:

I'll give you the definition of boredom: watching soap operas on a Friday evening!

"Giraffe: a large fleet African ruminant mammal."

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8y ago
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1w ago

A colon should be used to introduce a list, explanation, or summary. It is also used to separate hours from minutes in time references and to separate titles from subtitles in written works.

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Q: When should a colon be used?
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