parallelism

noun

par·​al·​lel·​ism ˈper-ə-ˌle-ˌli-zəm 

-lə-ˌli-, 

ˈpa-rə-

1

: the quality or state of being parallel

the parallelism of architectural figures

2

: resemblance, correspondence

… parallelism between obesity and hypertension …

—H. M. Marvin

3

: repeated syntactical similarities introduced for rhetorical effect

Biblical poetry relies largely on parallelism of lines …

—E. P. Sanders

4

: a theory that mind and matter accompany one another but are not causally related

5

: the independent development of similar traits or features (as of body structure or behavior) in different species or lineages that have common ancestry and that typically occupy similar environments or ecological niches : parallel evolution

Synonyms of parallelism

• similarity
• resemblance

Examples of parallelism in a Sentence

There is some degree of parallelism between the lives of the two women.

There is a certain parallelism in the development of the two technologies.

Recent Examples on the Web

One important distinction has to do with the degree of political parallelism in the news media, that is, the degree to which news organizations and journalists have political alliances or allegiances. —Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May 2026

Style-wise, Nazir favors parallelism, epistrophe, and lists of three [], all rhetorical devices that are associated with large language models. —Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 19 May 2026

The paradigms of biological and chemical computing increase the potential for massive parallelism and innovative data storage. —Chuck Brooks, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026

Lumai’s Iris Nova is a server that uses light to bypass the constraints of two-dimensional silicon chips, achieving massive spatial parallelism. —Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 30 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing parallelism

• psychophysical parallelism

Rhymes for parallelism

• activism
• albinism
• altruism
• aneurism
• animism
• aphorism
• atomism
• barbarism
• bolshevism
• botulism
• brahmanism
• calvinism

Kids Definition

parallelism

noun

par·​al·​lel·​ism ˈpar-ə-ˌlel-ˌiz-əm 

: the quality or state of being parallel

especially : similarity of construction of word groups especially for effect or rhythm

Medical Definition

parallelism

noun

par·​al·​lel·​ism ˈpar-ə-ˌlel-ˌiz-əm, -ləl- 

: a philosophical or psychological doctrine that there is a one-to-one correspondence between events in the mind and events in the brain but that the two sets of events exist without interacting in a causal way

called also psychophysical parallelism