A semicolon acts as a strengthened comma, not a colon

Evidence

Although similar in appearance, the semicolon is not a colon at all. It would better be thought of as a “king comma,” doing the work a comma might ordinarily do if it weren’t for some need for a stronger break in the sentence. When that need exists, what might have been a lowly comma before gets crowned like a checker reaching the eighth row. — Bryan A. Garner, Jeff Newman, Tiger Jackson, The Redbook, 46

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘king comma’ metaphor reframes the semicolon’s function for quick recall.
• XREF: connects to: The slash is inherently ambiguous because it can express either conjunction or disjunction — Bryan A. Garner, Jeff Newman, Tiger Jackson, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style,…, 115