parenthesis

Meaning

Noun

• A clause, phrase or word which is inserted (usually for explanation or amplification) into a passage which is already grammatically complete, and usually marked off with brackets, commas or dashes.
• Either of a pair of brackets, especially round brackets, ( and ) (used to enclose parenthetical material in a text).
• A digression; the use of such digressions.
• Such brackets as used to clarify expressions by grouping those terms affected by a common operator, or to enclose the components of a vector or the elements of a matrix.

Related

Similar words

• parenthetical expression
• round bracket; parenthesis-point
• paren (abbreviation, for the meaning "round bracket")

Origin

• From Late Latin parenthesis ("addition of a letter to a syllable in a word"), from Ancient Greek παρένθεσις, from παρεντίθημι, from παρά + ἐν + τίθημι, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ("to put, to do").