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

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

Those odds fluctuated as markets parsed mixed messages from Fed officials and limited economic data, thanks to the now-ended government shutdown.

Read more on Barron's

The near-term outlook also remained a bit difficult to parse due to the contributions of the company’s new acquisitions, Paradox and Sana.

Read more on Barron's

Those odds fluctuated as markets parsed mixed messages from Fed officials and limited economic data, thanks to the now-ended government shutdown.

Read more on Barron's

For months, the market was too busy pricing AI stocks and parsing Elon Musk’s latest proclamation to notice Japan’s bond yields climbing.

Read more on MarketWatch

Still, Berkshire’s disclosures are widely parsed by market participants seeking insight into the decisions made by the company’s investing deputies.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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