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
- paragraphic adjective
- paragraphically adverb
- paragraphism noun
- paragraphistical adjective
- subparagraph noun
- unparagraphed adjective
- well-paragraphed adjective
Etymology
Origin of paragraph
1515–25; earlier paragraphe < Greek paragraphḗ marked passage; para- 1, graph
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.
Here's the sentence in bold, followed by the paragraph:
From BBC
When approached, he showed that he had about half a dozen paragraphs done and was cursing his fate as a newspaper deadline writer.
From Los Angeles Times
So I’ll go through the paragraph several times until I can finally zip past that line.
The paragraphs are brief, often only one sentence long.
They are the queen and king of carefully calibrated consistency, and one wishes that from time to time Mr. Serrano would follow their lead and lose some of the repetition and one-word paragraphs.
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.
