parenthesis

noun
/pəˈɹɛn.θə.sɪs/

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin parenthesis (“addition of a letter to a syllable in a word”), itself borrowed from Ancient Greek παρένθεσις (parénthesis, “insertion”). By surface analysis, par- + en- + thesis.

  1. learned borrowing from parenthesis

Definitions

  1. A clause, phrase or word which is inserted (usually for explanation or amplification)…

    A clause, phrase or word which is inserted (usually for explanation or amplification) into a passage which is already grammatically complete, and usually marked off with brackets, commas or dashes.

    • How expressive this little parenthesis: "Sakuntalâ makes a chiding gesture with her finger"!
  2. Either of a pair of brackets, especially (mainly US) round brackets, ( and ) (used to…

    Either of a pair of brackets, especially (mainly US) round brackets, ( and ) (used to enclose parenthetical material in a text).

  3. A digression

    A digression; the use of such digressions.

  4. + 1 more definition
    1. Such brackets as used to clarify expressions by grouping those terms affected by a common…

      Such brackets as used to clarify expressions by grouping those terms affected by a common operator, or to enclose the components of a vector or the elements of a matrix.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for parenthesis. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA