parse

American  

[pahrs, pahrz] / pɑrs, pɑrz /

verb (used with object)

• parses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• parsed,
  past participle,  past
• parsing
  present participle

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.

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verb (used without object)

• parses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• parsed,
  past participle,  past
• parsing
  present participle

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

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

parse British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Participles

• parsing
  present
• parsed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• parse
  simple
• parses
  simple
• have parsed
  perfect
• has parsed
  perfect
• am parsing
  progressive
• are parsing
  progressive
• is parsing
  progressive
• have been parsing
  perfect progressive
• has been parsing
  perfect progressive

Past

• parsed
  simple
• had parsed
  perfect
• was parsing
  progressive
• were parsing
  progressive
• had been parsing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will parse
  simple
• will have parsed
  perfect
• will be parsing
  progressive
• will have been parsing
  perfect progressive

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!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parse parses parsed parsing

Thursday brings the June jobs report, which investors will parse closely for clues about the Fed’s next move on rates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

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

If the left branch is slender enough, it is generally understandable, albeit top-heavy, with all those words to parse before one arrives at the payoff.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2025

Rebecca Onion parses the book for clues that could explain the film’s cryptic ending.

From Slate ● Dec. 15, 2023

A good debate — or one that’s worth its while — illuminates issues, parses differences and sheds light on the persona of its participants.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 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

Reporters programmatically extracted compensation tables, footnotes and other explanations of perquisites mentioned in the filings and fed the results to an LLM which parsed the amount, type and beneficiary of each perk.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Together, Flynn and Teruko parsed through her life stories to give the show an arc.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

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

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

We must move beyond parsing each word, every day, searching for meaning in gibberish.

From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026

Eating well, healthy?—and parsing every word for tone and nuance, as if his sentences are a code I can crack.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

Related Words

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