COLON (cola, colones)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: cola    , colones   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Colon mean? 

• COLON (noun)
  The noun COLON has 5 senses:

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

2. the basic unit of money in El Salvador; equal to 100 centavos

3. the basic unit of money in Costa Rica; equal to 100 centimos

4. a port city at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal

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

  Familiarity information: COLON used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("colon" is a kind 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)

Meronyms (parts of "colon"):

sigmoid vein; vena sigmoideus (tributaries of the inferior mesenteric vein; drains the sigmoid colon)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colon"):

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)

Derivation:

colonic (of or relating to the colon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The basic unit of money in El Salvador; equal to 100 centavos

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

colon; El Salvadoran colon

Hypernyms ("colon" is a kind of...):

El Salvadoran monetary unit (monetary unit in El Salvador)

Meronyms (parts of "colon"):

centavo (a fractional monetary unit of several countries: El Salvador and Sao Tome and Principe and Brazil and Argentina and Bolivia and Colombia and Cuba and the Dominican Republic and Ecuador and El Salvador and Guatemala and Honduras and Mexico and Nicaragua and Peru and the Philippines and Portugal)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The basic unit of money in Costa Rica; equal to 100 centimos

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

colon; Costa Rican colon

Hypernyms ("colon" is a kind of...):

Costa Rican monetary unit (monetary unit in Costa Rica)

Meronyms (parts of "colon"):

centimo (a fractional monetary unit of Venezuela and Costa Rica and Equatorial Guinea and Paraguay and Spain)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A port city at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Aspinwall; Colon

Instance hypernyms:

city; metropolis; urban center (a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts)

port (a place (seaport or airport) where people and merchandise can enter or leave a country)

Holonyms ("Colon" is a part of...):

Panama; Republic of Panama (a republic on the Isthmus of Panama; achieved independence from Colombia in 1903)

Sense 5

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("colon" is a kind of...):

punctuation; punctuation mark (the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases)

 Context examples 

The first part of the colon (large intestine) that starts in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen and ends at the transverse colon in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.

(Ascending Colon, NCI Thesaurus)

Alteration in the expression of this gene is associated with the development of cancers of the liver, colon, bladder, breast and prostate.

(MIR127 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

A new study had review worldwide scientific literature on the role of dairy products in health and in the prevention of chronic diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic syndrome, colon or bladder cancer, and type 2 diabetes).

(Adequate intake of milk and dairy products in different life stages helps prevent chronic diseases, University of Granada)

Certain allelic variants of the AURKA gene are associated with breast and colon cancer.

(AURKA wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

In mouse, conductin organizes a multiprotein complex of APC (adenomatous polyposis of the colon), beta-catenin, glycogen synthase kinase 3-beta, and conductin, which leads to the degradation of beta-catenin.

(Axin 2, NCI Thesaurus)

The Arizona Cancer Center runs a scientific program in cancer prevention and control with special emphasis on colon, breast, prostate, and skin cancer.

(Arizona Cancer Center, NCI Thesaurus)

Aberrant expression of Aurora kinases occurs in a wide variety of cancers, including colon and breast cancers.

(Alisertib, NCI Thesaurus)

A condition in which abnormal cells are found in the glandular tissue that lines certain internal organs, such as the uterus, cervix, lung, pancreas, and colon.

(Adenocarcinoma in situ, NCI Dictionary)

A recombinant monoclonal antibody directed against colon cancer (CC) epitopes, tumor-associated glycoprotein 72 (TAG72).

(Monoclonal Antibody CC-46, NCI Thesaurus)

It results in a functional stenosis of the distal colon and a massive distention of the proximal colon.

(Aganglionic megacolon, NCI Thesaurus)