ENGLISH
REFERENCE

parentheses

n. plural-only
B2 Upper Intermediate US //pɝˈɛnθəˌsiz// paren·the·ses

n. a pair of curved marks ( ) used in writing. You use them to separate extra information or a side comment from the rest of the sentence.

n. a pair of curved punctuation marks used to enclose incidental information or a qualifying remark. Often used to separate non-essential clauses from the main syntactic structure.


SIMPLE

The date of the event is in parentheses.

CONTEXTUAL

The author included the original Greek term in parentheses after the English translation to help academic readers.

COMPLEX

While commas can set off minor asides, parentheses are more effective for enclosing technical data or citations that might otherwise disrupt the narrative flow of the paragraph.

Synonyms
Origin

By surface analysis, par- + en- + theses.

Usage

Plural form of 'parenthesis'; takes a plural verb. The marks are almost always used in pairs.

Pitfall

The information are in a parenthesesThe information is in parenthesesParentheses is the plural form; the singular is parenthesis. Learners often use the plural form with a singular article.

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