Parenthesis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pəˈrÉ›nθəsɪs/

Origin

Either indirectly via Middle French parenthese or directly from Late Latin parenthesis ("addition of a letter to a syllable in a word"), from Ancient Greek παρένθεσις, from παρεντίθημι (parentithēmi, "I put in beside, mix up"), from παρά (para, "beside") + ἐν (en, "in") + τίθημι (tithēmi, "put, place") (from Proto-Indo-European base *dhe- "to put, to do").

Full definition of parenthesis

Noun

1. 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.
2. Either of a pair of brackets, especially round brackets, ( and ) (used to enclose parenthetical material in a text).
3. (rhetoric) A digression; the use of such digressions.
• 2009, Up in the Air (2009 film):Ryan Bingham: I thought I was a part of your life. Alex Goran: I thought we signed up for the same thing... I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape. You're a break from our normal lives. You're a parenthesis. Ryan Bingham: I'm a parenthesis?
4. (mathematics, logic) 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.

Synonyms

• (clause, phrase or word) parenthetical expression
• (brackets) round bracket
• paren (abbreviation, for the meaning "round bracket")

Derived terms

• parenthetic
• parenthetic, parenthetical
• parenthesise, parenthesize

Anagrams

• interphases
• preanthesis