parse

[pahrs, pahrz]

verb (used with object)

parsed, parsing 

1. to analyze (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc.

2. to describe (a word in a sentence) grammatically, identifying the part of speech, inflectional form, syntactic function, etc.

3. to analyze (something, as a speech or behavior) to discover its implications or uncover a deeper meaning.

   Political columnists were in their glory, parsing the president's speech on the economy in minute detail.

4. Computers.,  to analyze (a string of characters) in order to associate groups of characters with the syntactic units of the underlying grammar.

verb (used without object)

parsed, parsing 

1. to be able to be parsed; lend itself to parsing.

   Sorry, but your concluding paragraph simply doesn't parse.

parse

/ pɑːz /

verb

1. to assign constituent structure to (a sentence or the words in a sentence)

2. (intr) (of a word or linguistic element) to play a specified role in the structure of a sentence

3. computing to analyse the source code of a computer program to make sure that it is structurally correct before it is compiled and turned into machine code

Other Word Forms

• parsable adjective
• parsing noun
• parser noun
• misparse verb (used with object)
• unparsed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of parse¹

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin pars “part,” as in pars ōrātiōnis “part of speech”

Word History and Origins

Origin of parse¹

C16: from Latin pars ( orātionis ) part (of speech)

Example Sentences

This is the little-known but prescient speech that Saladin Ambar expertly parses and intriguingly reinterprets in “Murder on the Mississippi.”

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Bank of America parses its customers’ bank and credit card accounts to see who is receiving wages or unemployment benefits to gauge the state of the labor market.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

“When you parse through it, we see sort of some haves and have-nots.”

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Large language models can now parse electronic medical records—digital junk drawers of unstructured doctor’s and nurse’s notes—into clean, structured data sets that are easier to analyze.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Trying to parse their motivations is like making out the writing on a chalkboard that’s been erased.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• audit 
• check 
• check out 
• consider 
• criticize 
• delve into www.thesaurus.com
• explore 
• inspect 
• investigate 
• ponder 
• pore over www.thesaurus.com
• probe 
• read 
• research 
• review 
• scan 
• screen 
• scrutinize 
• study 
• survey