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The answer is COLONY - : = colon

I thought it was very clever, and missed it completely first-time round. The moral is always ignore punctuation - except that once in a while when it is important. How do you know when? I can't answer that.

Thanks, Big Dave.

Settlement = Colony
so Figure = Colon

It's always difficult to follow a thread when it goes across two pages, so I'll explain again:

“Settlement: unknown figure (6)”

Settlement = COLONY

: = COLON and Y = unknown figure, as in algebra

Setters use unknown, unknown figure, variable etc. for x, y or z (but hardly ever for any other letters).

I think puzzled is taking the piss.

No, Trevor, I would never do that!

I could understand the answer being COLONY to represent settlement.
I realised the Y represented Unknown, but I did not know that colon could also represent an unknown figure. Knowing that Y represented unknown, I was seeking confirmation that colon could represent a figure.

The advice one gets from this forum from such people as Big Dave, Royston Bowden, yourself and others is too valuable to be trifled with.

the ":" doesn't represent a figure, it translates to the word "colon" followed by the "y".
Sorry I misread your intentions

It can be very difficult to "take the piss" in the written word. On my blog I posed the question "can anyone tell me at what point an illegal immigrant becomes an asylum seeker?" and I had a response from someone who took me seriously.

Thank You, Trevor. Having gone back to Big Dave's original post I managed to spot the colon (:) which I had missed first time round. Also, first time round I failed to count the number of letters hence my original submisstion of Fort (for settlement) followed by Y (for unknown) making Forty (for figure.)
Your "sorry" accepted. Life is too shortfor feeling prickly.
Colin

Thank you Puzzled/Colin.
When you wrote Forty I thought you were making up a new meaning of the word, i.e. like a Fort (I even found it quite amusing)
It is so easy to get the wrong end of the stick on the internet and I can't be bothered with emoticons.
It is a v good clue, and as Big Dave said shows why clues posted should be exact.