Word of the Day

: November 3, 2023

parse

verb PARSS

What It Means

To parse something is to study it by looking closely at its parts. In grammar and linguistics, parse means "to divide (a sentence) into grammatical parts and identify the parts and their relations to each other."

// The lawyer meticulously parsed the wording of the final contract to be sure that her client would get all that he was asking for.

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parse in Context

"Around the turn of the millennium, the captcha tool arrived to sort humans from bots based on their ability to interpret images of distorted text. Once some bots could handle that, captcha added other detection methods that included parsing images of motorbikes and trains, as well as sensing mouse movement and other user behavior." — Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sept. 2023

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.