parallelism

American  

[par-uh-le-liz-uhm, -luh-liz-] / ˈpær ə lɛˌlɪz əm, -ləˌlɪz- /

noun

1. the position or relation of parallels.

2. agreement in direction, tendency, or character; the state or condition of being parallel.

3. a parallel or comparison.

4. Metaphysics. the doctrine that mental and bodily processes are concomitant, each varying with variation of the other, but that there is no causal relation of interaction between the two.

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parallelism British  

/ ˈpærəlɛˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. the state of being parallel

2. grammar the repetition of a syntactic construction in successive sentences for rhetorical effect

3. philosophy the dualistic doctrine that mental and physical processes are regularly correlated but are not causally connected, so that, for example, pain always accompanies, but is not caused by, a pin-prick Compare interactionism occasionalism

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonparallelism
  noun
• parallelist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of parallelism

First recorded in 1600–10; parallel + -ism

Explanation

You find parallelism between two things that are alike, like parallel lines. If your path in life is to save the world from an evil wizard, you can remark on the parallelism between your life and Harry Potter's. In English grammar, parallelism is used in sentence construction to give matching structure. In the sentence, "I like to read, dancing, and fighting off Zombie attacks," the parts of the list are not parallel. You can revise the sentence for parallelism: "I like to read, to dance, and to fight off Zombie attacks." Of course, if Zombies are attacking, they probably don't care if the sentence parts are parallel or not.

Example Sentences

Parallelism is the use of similar or equivalent constructions of phrases or clauses to emphasize an idea.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

Parallelism: a rhetorical technique of using similar words, phrases, or other grammatical constructions to connect related ideas, emphasize a point, or add rhythm.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

Parallelism and repetition can work hand in hand as organizational strategies and to emphasize ideas in your script.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

Parallelism is what allows Google to keep up with constantly rising data and use, because it allows computing power to scale up faster than Moore's Law, so long as the funds are available.

From The Guardian • Jun. 12, 2013

The titles are: "The Automaton Theory: Parallelism," "What is Parallelism?" and "The Man and the Candlestick."

From An Introduction to Philosophy by Fullerton, George Stuart