parse

1 of 2

verb

ˈpärs 

 chiefly British  ˈpärz

parsed; parsing

transitive verb

1

a

: to divide (a sentence) into grammatical parts and identify the parts and their relations to each other

b

: to describe (a word) grammatically by stating the part of speech and explaining the inflection (see inflection sense 2a) and syntactical relationships

2

: to examine in a minute way : analyze critically

having trouble parsing … explanations for dwindling market shares

—R. S. Anson

intransitive verb

1

: to give a grammatical description of a word or a group of words

2

: to admit of being parsed

parse

2 of 2

noun

: a product or an instance of parsing

Did you know?

If parse brings up memories of learning the parts of speech in school, you've done your homework regarding this word. Parsing sentences, after all, is part and parcel of learning to read and write. Parse comes from the first element of the Latin term for "part of speech," pars orationis. It's an old word that has been used since at least the mid 1500s, but it was not until the late 1700s that parse graduated to its extended, non-grammar-related sense of "to examine in a minute way" or "to analyze critically." Remember this extended sense, and you'll really be at the head of the class.

Examples of parse in a Sentence

Verb

Students were asked to parse the sentence.

Economists parsed the census data.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

This cryptic set of documents, parsed down from a much larger operational plan for nuclear war, provides the commander in chief with nuclear launch options should policy dictate the president needs to act. —Annie Jacobsen, TIME, 11 Apr. 2024

Visual artists must strike a balance between accuracy and artistry when conveying scientific observations that exist in data that only experts can parse. —Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2024

But any rebuttal or parsing the facts of the criminal case in Europe would happen months later in court while copies and screenshots of the civil complaint, sometimes including personally identifiable information, was shared on social media. —Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024

The complexity of the food system and warfare itself make parsing intent ever harder. —Zach Helder, Foreign Affairs, 22 Mar. 2024

Image: Anthropic Anthropic claims Claude 3 models can give near-instant results even while parsing dense material like a research paper. —Emilia David, The Verge, 4 Mar. 2024

The new archaeological work provides clearer context for parsing some of the patterns he’s observed in his work. —Lauren Leffer, Popular Science, 3 Apr. 2024

Gold is going up — but not as much as the S&P 500 Gold is doing very, very well this year, and the reasons why aren’t entirely easy to parse (one gold-mining CEO has his suspicions). —Morgan Haefner, Quartz, 22 Mar. 2024

In a now familiar paradox, the rational forces stuck to magical thinking, while the irrational ones were more logical, parsing the brute equations of power. —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Verb and Noun

Latin pars orationis part of speech

First Known Use

Verb

circa 1568, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Noun

1963, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

parse

verb

ˈpärs,

ˈpärz

parsed; parsing

1

: to analyze a sentence by naming its parts and their relations to each other

2

: to give the part of speech of a word and explain its relation to other words in a sentence