paragraph
Americannoun
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a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea, usually beginning with an indentation on a new line.
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a note, item, or brief article, as in a newspaper.
verb (used with object)
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to divide into paragraphs.
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to write or publish paragraphs about, as in a newspaper.
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to express in a paragraph.
noun
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(in a piece of writing) one of a series of subsections each usually devoted to one idea and each usually marked by the beginning of a new line, indentation, increased interlinear space, etc
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printing the character ¶, used as a reference mark or to indicate the beginning of a new paragraph
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a short article in a newspaper
verb
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to form into paragraphs
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to express or report in a paragraph
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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paragraphismnoun
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subparagraphnoun
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paragraphicadjective
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paragraphisticaladjective
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unparagraphedadjective
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well-paragraphedadjective
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paragraphicallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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paragraphsimple
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paragraphssimple
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have paragraphedperfect
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has paragraphedperfect
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am paragraphingprogressive
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are paragraphingprogressive
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is paragraphingprogressive
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have been paragraphingperfect progressive
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has been paragraphingperfect progressive
Past
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paragraphedsimple
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had paragraphedperfect
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was paragraphingprogressive
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were paragraphingprogressive
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had been paragraphingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of paragraph
1515–25; earlier paragraphe < Greek paragraphḗ marked passage; see para- 1, graph
Explanation
A full page of text with no visible breaks is hard to read. That’s why you break your ideas up into groups of sentences, called paragraphs. Each paragraph contains logically connected sentences about one main idea. If your teacher asks you to write a paragraph on learning vocabulary words, you will write several sentences that describe how to learn vocabulary. Each sentence will add to the topic and will connect one to the other. The length of a paragraph will vary. Your teacher might require just three or four sentences to accurately describe vocabulary learning. Unless he’s a fan of James Joyce. Then your paragraph might need to extend for pages and pages.
Vocabulary lists containing paragraph
PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Notably, the paragraph says nothing about the U.S. making arrangements for the safe passage of vessels, which Iran has seized on to attack ships that use a U.S.-coordinated route, the official said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
My middle-school civics textbook barely dedicated a paragraph to this 1801 war between the U.S and a group of North African states, which has been described as “America’s first war on terrorism.”
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
It’s almost too stunning to carry on after hearing such news—but to a second paragraph of this entry we must go.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2026
His victory speech, in the middle of the night, was, paragraph by paragraph, implicit about his ambitions and in totality almost explicit.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
I passed her a book and pointed to a paragraph about what they did with orphaned children.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
"They are already identifying 70% of our hearts attacks from two paragraphs of text," said Swinburn.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Tipton and three others stood before the board, trading off paragraphs of a 12-minute statement to bypass the three-minute public-comment limit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Its policy statement on Wednesday consisted of four short paragraphs, while previous statements, such as the one in April, included traditional boilerplate items, comments on recent events and details of policy votes by committee members.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
Instead, the so-called autopsy was a shambolic train wreck of missing paragraphs, factual errors, and apparent plagiarism.
From Slate ● May 23, 2026
They were writing paragraphs, lists, charts, and graphs.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
They are very brief, follow a prescribed form and, if necessary, are paragraphed in the same way as the letter.
From Military Instructors Manual by Schoonmaker, Oliver
Let the reader only remember what I have just said, that most of them are miserably reported, paragraphed and stopped, and make allowance accordingly.
From A Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield by Ryle, John Charles
The ear of society?—they were talking, or almost, as if he had publicly paragraphed a modest young lady.
From The Wings of the Dove, Volume II by James, Henry
Her work was spelled and periodic, phrased and paragraphed.
From Child and Country A Book of the Younger Generation by Comfort, Will Levington
As the matter was received over the wire he paragraphed it so that each printer had exactly three lines, thus enabling the matter to be set up very expeditiously in the newspaper offices.
From Edison, His Life and Inventions by Dyer, Frank Lewis
Determine how genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics vary.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
Correctly identify and use conventions of the personal narrative genre, including structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
It's a massive book, littered with obscure references, and is written almost entirely in unattributed speech, with no chapter breaks and very little paragraphing.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 22, 2013
Caro now says that Shawn agreed to restore all the changes he cared most deeply about, but the magazine version nevertheless differs from the original and changes Caro’s punctuation and paragraphing.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2012
Among the many dumb rules of paragraphing foisted on students in composition courses is the one that says that a paragraph may not consist of a single sentence.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
