bracket

American  

[brak-it] / ˈbræk ɪt /

noun

brackets plural

1. a support, as of metal or wood, projecting from a wall or the like to hold or bear the weight of a shelf, part of a cornice, etc.

2. a shelf or shelves so supported.

3. a square bracket or a curly bracket.

4. Mathematics.

   1. brackets, parentheses of various forms indicating that the enclosed quantity is to be treated as a unit.

   2. (loosely) vinculum.

   3. Informal. an expression or formula between a pair of brackets.

5. a grouping of people based on the amount of their income.

   the low-income bracket.

6. a class; grouping; classification.

   She travels in a different social bracket.

7. Sports. a diagram that tracks the process of elimination among sequentially paired opponents in a tournament.

8. Architecture.

   1. any horizontally projecting support for an overhanging weight, as a corbel, cantilever, or console.

   2. any of a series of fancifully shaped false consoles beneath an ornamental cornice.

9. (on a staircase) an ornamental piece filling the angle between a riser and its tread.

10. Shipbuilding.

    1. a flat plate, usually triangular with a flange on one edge, used to unite and reinforce the junction between two flat members or surfaces meeting at an angle.

    2. any member for reinforcing the angle between two members or surfaces.

11. a projecting fixture for gas or electricity.

12. Gunnery. range or elevation producing both shorts and overs on a target.

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verb (used with object)

brackets, present (3rd person singular) bracketed, past participle, past bracketing present participle

1. to furnish with or support by a bracket or brackets.

2. to place within brackets; couple with a brace.

3. to associate, mention, or class together.

   Gossip columnists often bracket them together, so a wedding may be imminent.

4. Gunnery. to place (shots) both beyond and short of a target.

5. Photography. to take (additional shots) at exposure levels above and below the estimated correct exposure.

bracket British  

/ ˈbrækɪt /

noun

1. an L-shaped or other support fixed to a wall to hold a shelf, etc

2. one or more wall shelves carried on brackets

3. architect a support projecting from the side of a wall or other structure See also corbel ancon console 2

4. Also called: square bracket.  either of a pair of characters, [ ], used to enclose a section of writing or printing to separate it from the main text

5. a general name for parenthesis square bracket brace

6. a group or category falling within or between certain defined limits

   the lower income bracket

7. the distance between two preliminary shots of artillery fire in range-finding

8. a skating figure consisting of two arcs meeting at a point, tracing the shape ⋎

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verb

1. to fix or support by means of a bracket or brackets

2. to put (written or printed matter) in brackets, esp as being irrelevant, spurious, or bearing a separate relationship of some kind to the rest of the text

3. to couple or join (two lines of text, etc) with a brace

4. (often foll by with) to group or class together

   to bracket Marx with the philosophers

5. to adjust (artillery fire) until the target is hit

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unbracketed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• brackets
  plural

Participles

• bracketing
  present
• bracketed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bracket
  simple
• brackets
  simple
• have bracketed
  perfect
• has bracketed
  perfect
• am bracketing
  progressive
• are bracketing
  progressive
• is bracketing
  progressive
• have been bracketing
  perfect progressive
• has been bracketing
  perfect progressive

Past

• bracketed
  simple
• had bracketed
  perfect
• was bracketing
  progressive
• were bracketing
  progressive
• had been bracketing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bracket
  simple
• will have bracketed
  perfect
• will be bracketing
  progressive
• will have been bracketing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of bracket

First recorded in 1570–80; earlier brag(g)et, from Middle French braguette “codpiece,” diminutive of Old Provençal braga “breeches” ( see brogue ² ( def. ))

Explanation

A bracket is a punctuation mark that's used to set a word or phrase aside from the rest of a sentence. Sometimes dates or other numbers in a sentence are enclosed by brackets. When you quote someone in a piece of formal writing, you can use brackets around an ellipsis, or three dots, to show you've omitted some of the actual quote: "He exclaimed, 'What a surprise to see you here [...] looking so cheerful!'" Another kind of bracket is the L-shaped support that holds a shelf against a wall, often using screws. This is the original meaning of bracket — the punctuation mark was named for the way it resembles the carpentry support.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bracket brackets bracketed bracketing

That’s an attractive proposition for anyone expecting to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

The government appears to be struggling to put them in a bracket, unlike when farmers protested agricultural reforms five years ago.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Your instinct that you’ll never be in a meaningfully lower tax bracket isn’t an unreasonable one, given your good fortune.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

"The scone is a British classic and so is the Welsh cake so they are both in the same bracket," said Williams.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

The bracket over the music shows you which measures to play each time you arrive at that point in the music.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

This law made permanent the tax rates and tax brackets originally enacted in 2017.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026

Yet the significance of this meeting lies deeper than tournament brackets.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

“We made things so the progressivity of the tax code is a lot higher than the tax brackets would imply,” Reichstein says.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

The poll found that the wealthiest classes enjoy privileges available to fewer people in lower brackets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

I pull out a box of metal brackets, nuts and bolts, drill bits and nails—things that clank together as I set it down.

From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio

His grandfather is Rennie Stennett, a versatile player whose nine seasons with the Pirates were bracketed by World Series titles in his 1971 rookie season and 1979 finale.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

The company’s guidance on adjusted earnings per share, which calls for $1.02 to $1.04, bracketed the consensus view.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 11, 2026

I’m less excited about the front end, bracketed by large and kind of goofy LED arrays at the edges.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026

Regularly bracketed alongside Kohli, New Zealand's Kane Williamson and Steve Smith of Australia in the 'Fab Four' of Test batting, Root has enjoyed the best form of his career since the beginning of 2022.

From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2024

Here were two artists, one black and one Puerto Rican, standing beneath a 115-year-old chandelier, bracketed by towering antique portraits of George and Martha Washington, singing about feeling “at home in this nation we’ve made.”

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

It also upped its top-line expectations, to between $7.14 billion and 7.20 billion, bracketing consensus.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

For the current quarter, Oracle guided for revenue growth between 19% to 21%, bracketing the 20% growth expectations implied by the FactSet consensus.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 10, 2026

He describes how he uses a technique called focus bracketing, where dozens of photos are taken.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025

There is, perhaps, at the heart of every composition, the door to a great mystery you might not even have realized you were bracketing.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025

The bracketing wayward boats were pushing Eleyne against the pier.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

• category