parallelism
Americannoun
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the position or relation of parallels.
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agreement in direction, tendency, or character; the state or condition of being parallel.
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a parallel or comparison.
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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.
noun
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the state of being parallel
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grammar the repetition of a syntactic construction in successive sentences for rhetorical effect
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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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Etymology
Origin of parallelism
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.
Vocabulary lists containing parallelism
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Rhetoric
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The AP English Exam: Writing, Grammar, and Word Choice
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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.
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 is especially helpful for organizational and structural concerns in a script or composition.
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
Parallelism, has tried to avoid these two problems; not only does it not solve them, but it arranges so as not to propound them.
From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Binet, Alfred
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.
