Parenthesis
noun
A pair of round brackets () used to include extra information or a comment that is not part of the main statement.
He was born in 1980 (the same year as me).

Often appears as...
- open parenthesis
- close parenthesis
noun
Something that exists apart from other things, having little effect on them.
The war years were a parenthesis in her life.

Often appears as...
- brief parenthesis
- curious parenthesis
noun
A pair of round brackets () used to include extra information or a comment that is not part of the main statement.
He was born in 1980 (the same year as me).

Often appears as...
- open parenthesis
- close parenthesis
noun
Something that exists apart from other things, having little effect on them.
The war years were a parenthesis in her life.

Often appears as...
- brief parenthesis
- curious parenthesis
Definition 1 of 2

Additional Info
Parentheses can add non-essential details that enrich the main point.

The cake recipe (which won an award) is quite complex.
Clarity in Writing
Use parentheses to avoid cluttering the sentence with commas.

The ingredients – sugar, flour, and butter (among others) – are combined.
Emphasis Reduction
Information in parentheses is de-emphasized, signaling it's secondary.

He finally answered (after several reminders) the email.
Additional Info
Parentheses can add non-essential details that enrich the main point.

The cake recipe (which won an award) is quite complex.
Clarity in Writing
Use parentheses to avoid cluttering the sentence with commas.

The ingredients – sugar, flour, and butter (among others) – are combined.
Emphasis Reduction
Information in parentheses is de-emphasized, signaling it's secondary.

He finally answered (after several reminders) the email.
Additional Info
Parentheses can add non-essential details that enrich the main point.

The cake recipe (which won an award) is quite complex.
Clarity in Writing
Use parentheses to avoid cluttering the sentence with commas.

The ingredients – sugar, flour, and butter (among others) – are combined.
Emphasis Reduction
Information in parentheses is de-emphasized, signaling it's secondary.

He finally answered (after several reminders) the email.
Video examples
Seal Meat Deal PIPE Yukon...
here this stuff is really good this is prime time five chickens we can have a lot of eggs as we get our eggs and if they don't lay we got some chickens to you guys ever have chicken before the red chicken before not on the rap let's name him Kathy parentheses and Connie KFC yeah
Video examples
Jay Bradner: Open-source...
This string of letters and numbers and symbols and parentheses that can be texted, I suppose, or Twittered worldwide, is the chemical identity of our pro compound. It's the information that we most need from pharmaceutical companies,
Video examples
Group theory 101: How to...
Axiom no matter where we put parentheses when we're doing a single group operation, we still get the same result. In other words, if we turn our square right two times, then right once, that's the same as once, then twice,
Video examples
Seal Meat Deal PIPE Yukon...
here this stuff is really good this is prime time five chickens we can have a lot of eggs as we get our eggs and if they don't lay we got some chickens to you guys ever have chicken before the red chicken before not on the rap let's name him Kathy parentheses and Connie KFC yeah
Video examples
Jay Bradner: Open-source...
This string of letters and numbers and symbols and parentheses that can be texted, I suppose, or Twittered worldwide, is the chemical identity of our pro compound. It's the information that we most need from pharmaceutical companies,
Video examples
Group theory 101: How to...
Axiom no matter where we put parentheses when we're doing a single group operation, we still get the same result. In other words, if we turn our square right two times, then right once, that's the same as once, then twice,
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Tom Sturridge
English Actor
Even the way Mamet describes silences within his plays is different. There are pauses; there are pauses within parentheses; there are pauses before dialogue; there are pauses in the spaces between the dialogue - there's this extraordinary vocabulary of silence which is all there on the page, mapped out.

Quote examples
Tom King
American Author
My scripts, they're pretty serious. I basically just describe stuff. I don't put too many notes and letters to the editors. But when I wrote 'KGBLT,' in parentheses I wrote, 'Well this is the best thing I've ever written. It will all be downhill from here. I'm so sorry for the rest of my career.

Quote examples
Wayne Dyer
American Psychologist
Your Highest Self is not just an idea that sounds lofty and spiritual. It is a way of being. It is the very first principle that you must come to understand and embrace as you move toward attracting to you that which you want and need for this parenthesis in eternity that you know as your life.

Quote examples
Jason Isbell
American Musician
Sometimes a song becomes rhetoric, but you have to really empathise. You also have to leave room for both sides of the argument: even if you're not telling the other side, you have to put that part in parentheses and make sure it's understood.

Quote examples
Pico Iyer
Indian Writer
If we do away with semi-colons, parentheses and much else, we will lose all music, nuance and subtlety in communication - and end up shouting at one another in block capitals.

Quote examples
Mario Benedetti
Uruguayan Novelist
I believe life is a parenthesis between two nothings. I'm an atheist. I believe in a personal God, which is conscience, and that's what we must be accountable to every day.

Quote examples
D. H. Lawrence
English Writer
I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter.

Quote examples
Nicolas Chamfort
French Writer
The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.

Quote examples
Alan Perlis
American Scientist
We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.

Quote examples
Steven Wright
American Comedian
If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses.

Quote examples
Tom Sturridge
English Actor
Even the way Mamet describes silences within his plays is different. There are pauses; there are pauses within parentheses; there are pauses before dialogue; there are pauses in the spaces between the dialogue - there's this extraordinary vocabulary of silence which is all there on the page, mapped out.

Quote examples
Tom King
American Author
My scripts, they're pretty serious. I basically just describe stuff. I don't put too many notes and letters to the editors. But when I wrote 'KGBLT,' in parentheses I wrote, 'Well this is the best thing I've ever written. It will all be downhill from here. I'm so sorry for the rest of my career.

Quote examples
Wayne Dyer
American Psychologist
Your Highest Self is not just an idea that sounds lofty and spiritual. It is a way of being. It is the very first principle that you must come to understand and embrace as you move toward attracting to you that which you want and need for this parenthesis in eternity that you know as your life.

Quote examples
Jason Isbell
American Musician
Sometimes a song becomes rhetoric, but you have to really empathise. You also have to leave room for both sides of the argument: even if you're not telling the other side, you have to put that part in parentheses and make sure it's understood.

Quote examples
Pico Iyer
Indian Writer
If we do away with semi-colons, parentheses and much else, we will lose all music, nuance and subtlety in communication - and end up shouting at one another in block capitals.

Quote examples
Mario Benedetti
Uruguayan Novelist
I believe life is a parenthesis between two nothings. I'm an atheist. I believe in a personal God, which is conscience, and that's what we must be accountable to every day.

Quote examples
D. H. Lawrence
English Writer
I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter.

Quote examples
Nicolas Chamfort
French Writer
The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society.

Quote examples
Alan Perlis
American Scientist
We toast the Lisp programmer who pens his thoughts within nests of parentheses.

Quote examples
Steven Wright
American Comedian
If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses.

Example 1 of 10
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