Parallel

How to spell parallel

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce parallel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parallel mean?

1. adjectiveLying alongside something else at an unchanging distance, or closely corresponding to it.
2. nounA close similarity or comparison drawn between two situations, or a line of latitude on a map.

Parallel in a sentence

• adjective

  The two railway tracks run parallel for several miles.

• noun

  The report draws a clear parallel between the two banking crises.

• adjective

  The new pay scheme runs parallel to the existing pension plan.

• noun

  The border follows the thirty-eighth parallel across the map.

Where does parallel come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek parallelos, which described lines lying beside one another and never meeting. It was built from para, meaning 'beside' or 'alongside', and allelon, meaning 'one another', a word itself formed by doubling allos, meaning 'other'. Latin took the term over as parallelus, and it passed into English through French in the middle of the sixteenth century, first in the strict geometric sense before broadening to mean any close correspondence or comparison. The same para is the familiar prefix in words like 'paragraph' and 'paramedic', where it still carries the sense of 'beside'. The notorious spelling trap lives in the middle: there is a single r but a doubled l, then a final single l, so it runs r-a-l-l-e-l, and remembering the 'one another' origin of that allel core can help fix the doubled l in memory.

How the word is built

• para- (beside)
• allel (from Greek allelon: one another)
• repeated to mean lines lying beside one another