PARENTHESIS

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PARENTHESIS [Stress: ‘pa-REN-the-sis’. Plural parentheses (‘-seez’)].
1. In GRAMMAR, a qualifying, explanatory, or appositional word, phrase, clause, or sentence that interrupts a construction without otherwise affecting it. A written or printed parenthesis may be marked by pairs of COMMAS, DASHES, or round BRACKETS/parentheses: Our new manager (he has just this minute arrived) would like to meet you. A spoken parenthesis has the same intonation as an aside.

2. In the plural, a name for round brackets: the general term in AmE, but a less common, more technical term in BrE (short form parens). See ACADEMIC USAGE, ASIDE.

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