parse

American  

[pahrs, pahrz] / pɑrs, pɑrz /

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.

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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 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

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

Etymology

Origin of parse

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

Example Sentences

In the week ahead, investors will parse the January jobs report, which will be published on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

From Barron's

We thought we owed him the opportunity after our criticism of his tariffs, and we’ll pay him the additional compliment of parsing his claims.

From The Wall Street Journal

As traders parsed renewed fears of a trans-Atlantic trade war, a bond selloff in Japan on Tuesday sent yields on that country’s longer-dated government debt to records.

From The Wall Street Journal

Netflix will announce fourth quarter earnings Tuesday, which investors will parse for an insight into the company’s bid to acquire Warner Bros.

From The Wall Street Journal

Even the mystery she’s trying to unravel depends on correctly parsing the meaning of syntax and conjugation.

From Salon

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