parse
Americanverb (used with object)
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to analyze (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc.
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to describe (a word in a sentence) grammatically, identifying the part of speech, inflectional form, syntactic function, etc.
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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.
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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)
verb
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to assign constituent structure to (a sentence or the words in a sentence)
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(intr) (of a word or linguistic element) to play a specified role in the structure of a sentence
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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parsesimple
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parsessimple
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have parsedperfect
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has parsedperfect
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am parsingprogressive
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are parsingprogressive
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is parsingprogressive
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have been parsingperfect progressive
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has been parsingperfect progressive
Past
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parsedsimple
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had parsedperfect
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was parsingprogressive
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were parsingprogressive
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had been parsingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of parse
First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin pars “part,” as in pars ōrātiōnis “part of speech”
Explanation
When you parse a sentence, you break it into parts and analyze each element carefully. When your sweetheart shouts "You never listen!" it's a bad idea to parse that by replying, "I just heard you, so I must be listening." The ability to successfully parse language is important. A binding legal contract, for example, should be read very carefully so you know exactly what's going on. You can also parse things that are more personal. You might exhaustively parse the comments of the guy you have a desperate crush on for any hint that he shares your passionate feelings. The sad truth of the matter? If you have to parse, he probably doesn't love you. Apply your parsing skills elsewhere!
Vocabulary lists containing parse
Charming as Verb
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Educated
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The Martian
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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:
Investors will parse the data for clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy path, after the central bank’s last meeting boosted rate-hike expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
And it might not be easy to parse out which employees would be best suited for these products.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
If a formal agreement is announced this shortened-trading week, investors will be eager to parse the details–especially around the Strait of Hormuz and how quickly it can be fully reopened to maritime traffic.
From Barron's ● Jun. 14, 2026
I consider them in the light of our 10-foot windows, try to parse them as I stare at another perfect California sunset.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
He heard Kaisha and Reg say something to him, but he couldn’t parse the words, and it was like all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
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.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025
Rebecca Onion parses the book for clues that could explain the film’s cryptic ending.
From Slate ● Dec. 15, 2023
She can hear it in the audible gasps of onlookers as she parses a moment in the pandemic that they had forgotten.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
Throughout the album, which arrived in January, Wolf parses the past by mulling how others used to treat her and how she felt about herself.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 8, 2023
"The rover currently parses the signal into bytes, then identifies the specific sequence the Hab sends. That way, natural radio waves won't throw off the homing. If the bytes aren't right, the rover ignores them."
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
For his part, Thomas writes as though history resides principally in legal texts, 19th-century dictionaries, and carefully parsed debates over sovereignty.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
Yardeni and his team parsed the official data released monthly by the Treasury Department, and found that foreign investors poured more than $1.4 trillion into U.S. assets during the 12 months through April 2026.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 28, 2026
Still, Berkshire’s disclosures are widely parsed by market participants seeking insight into the decisions made by the company Buffett ran for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Online fanatics of true crime have parsed through information about the Nancy Guthrie case, filling in the limited details with rumor, innuendo and conspiracy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2026
Suppose a reader has successfully parsed a sentence and now has an understanding of who did what to whom or what is true of what.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
For investors parsing the regulatory filings, these industry trends supporting the stock carry far more weight than a few automated transactions.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Eastern Daylight Time, is worth quoting and parsing:
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
The phrase might also carry a double meaning, one Grohl is still parsing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The legal parsing of what technically violates a rule is not the same as the ethical question of what a Cabinet secretary should be doing with his time and public platform.
From Salon ● May 18, 2026
The first is to find the correct branches, a process called parsing.
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.
