In Lists

Using Semicolons in Lists

So right after telling you that semicolons shouldn’t be used like commas, we should discuss one situation where the semicolon does function more like a comma. However, this is a very particular situation, so you’ll want to pay close attention.

You should use semicolons when you are separating items in a list that already contain commas. Here is an example:

Because the items in the series contain commas themselves, it would be confusing to add more commas to the situation. In this particular instance, the semicolon separates the items in a series.