parse
[ pahrs, especially British, pahrz ]
/ pɑrs, especially British, pɑrz /
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verb (used with object), parsed, pars·ing.
to analyze (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc.
to describe (a word in a sentence) grammatically, identifying the part of speech, inflectional form, syntactic function, etc.
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.
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, pars·ing.
to be able to be parsed; lend itself to parsing: Sorry, but your concluding paragraph simply doesn't parse.
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Origin of parse
First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin pars “part,” as in pars ōrātiōnis “part of speech”
OTHER WORDS FROM parse
pars·a·ble, adjectivepars·er, nounmis·parse, verb (used with object), mis·parsed, mis·pars·ing.un·parsed, adjectiveDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
British Dictionary definitions for parse
parse
/ (pɑːz) /
verb grammar
to assign constituent structure to (a sentence or the words in a sentence)
(intr) (of a word or linguistic element) to play a specified role in the structure of a sentence
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
Derived forms of parse
parsable, adjectiveparsing, nounWord Origin for parse
C16: from Latin pars (orātionis) part (of speech)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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