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/pərˈɛnθəsɪs/ Listen

noun

Parenthesis n. (pl. parentheses)

A word, phrase, or sentence, by way of comment or explanation, inserted in, or attached to, a sentence which would be grammatically complete without it. It is usually inclosed within curved lines (see def. 2 below), or dashes. "Seldom mentioned without a derogatory parenthesis." "Don't suffer every occasional thought to carry you away into a long parenthesis."

(Print.) One of the curved lines () which inclose a parenthetic word or phrase. Note: Parenthesis, in technical grammar, is that part of a sentence which is inclosed within the recognized sign; but many phrases and sentences which are punctuated by commas are logically parenthetical. In def. 1, the phrase "by way of comment or explanation" is inserted for explanation, and the sentence would be grammatically complete without it. The present tendency is to avoid using the distinctive marks, except when confusion would arise from a less conspicuous separation.

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Etymology of 'Parenthesis'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Parenthesis" Quotes from Famous Books

... with some slic't lemon [the the sauce] and half a dozen of slic't onions [half a a dozen] tie up the top of the pot [the the top] then take the tongue being ready boil'd [being being] as you do veal, (in page ) [page number and closing parenthesis missing; reference may be to page 225 "To bake a Loin, Breast, or Rack of Veal or Mutton."] then mince the brain and tongue with a little sage [brain tongue] either in slices or in the whole collar [in in the whole] and serve it up with scraped ...

— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May

... talking for our whole company, I don't expect all the readers of this periodical to be interested in my notes of what was said. Still, I think there may be a few that will rather like this vein,—possibly prefer it to a livelier one,—serious young men, and young women generally, in life's roseate parenthesis from —— years ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858 • Various

... excuse for thus naming the Epicureans with the Stoics, in conformity to the general opinion that the Epicureans were not so rigid in their morals as the Stoics, which is not true in the main, as he demonstrates at one view. This involved Montaigne in a tedious parenthesis, during which it is proper that the reader be attentive, that he may not entirely lose the thread of the argument. In some later editions of this author, it has been attempted to remedy this inconvenience, but without observing that ...

— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... the "King" thought—aloud; while Calypso and I sat and listened, occasionally throwing in a parenthesis of comment or suggestion. It was evident, we all agreed, that Calypso had been right. It had been Tobias and none other whose evil eye had sent her so breathless back to me, waiting in the shadow of the woods; and it was the same evil eye that had fallen ...

— Pieces of Eight • Richard le Gallienne

... and pleasure in a woman's company, discourse and taking her by the hand, she being a pretty woman." He goes about weighing up the Assurance, which lay near Woolwich under water, and cries in a parenthesis, "Poor ship, that I have been twice merry in, in Captain Holland's time"; and after revisiting the Naseby, now changed into the Charles, he confesses "it was a great pleasure to myself to see the ship that I began my good fortune in." The ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 3 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

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