Parentheses

How to spell parentheses

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce parentheses

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parentheses mean?

1. nounThe pair of curved upright marks ( ) used to enclose an aside or extra information within a sentence.
2. nounPlural of parenthesis: explanatory or qualifying remarks inserted into a passage, often as a digression from the main point.

Parentheses in a sentence

• The author placed the publication date inside parentheses after each title.

• His report was cluttered with long parentheses that distracted from the argument.

• Company style guides often explain when to use parentheses rather than commas.

• The editor cut several rambling parentheses to tighten the prose.

Where does parentheses come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word travels straight back to Greek parenthesis, which literally meant 'a putting in beside'. It was assembled from para meaning 'beside', en meaning 'in', and thesis meaning 'a placing', the last of these coming from the verb tithenai, 'to put'. The idea was of an extra word or remark slipped in alongside the main sentence, which is exactly what the marks now enclose. The term passed through Late Latin and French and settled into English in the late 1500s, at first describing the inserted phrase itself and only later the curved marks that fence it off. The plural keeps the Greek-style ending, so the singular parenthesis becomes parentheses with the final syllable pronounced 'seez', and that shifting vowel pattern (the unstressed second e and the -eses ending) is the part that trips writers up. Its relatives thesis, synthesis and hypothesis all share that same Greek thesis root.

How the word is built

• par- (from para-: beside)
• en- (in)
• thes (placing, from Greek tithenai: to put)
• -es (plural)