Parenthetical

adj, noun

adj, noun ·5 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A word or phrase within parentheses.
  2. 2
    an expression in parentheses wordnet
  3. 3
    A descriptor or modifier enclosed within parentheses and put, indented, in a line of dialogue to describe how it should be acted or directed onscreen.
Adjective
  1. 1
    using, containing, or within parenthesis not-comparable

    "the parenthetical portion of the sentence "Bob (my best friend) works in finance""

  2. 2
    that explains or qualifies something not-comparable
  3. 3
    that is incidental not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    qualifying or explaining; placed or as if placed in parentheses wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
parentheticaccidentaladriftbeside the markbeside the pointbeside the question

Example

More examples

"His style (if you were to call it that) was excessively (though I run the risk of hypocrisy) parenthetical (pardon the pun)."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin parentheticus (from Late Latin parenthesis or Ancient Greek παρένθετος (parénthetos), + -icus) + -al. By surface analysis, par- + en- + thetical.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.