Meaning & use

parsing

verb·Academic

Analyzing a sentence, statement, or piece of data by breaking it into its component parts to determine structure or meaning.

See it in a sentence

The compiler kept parsing the code line by line, checking each statement for errors.

Parsing his vague apology, she realized he was not actually admitting fault.

A note on using this word

Parsing is central to both grammar, where it means identifying a sentence's parts of speech, and computing, where it means interpreting structured data.

Words with a similar meaning

analyzingbreaking down

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Another way to use it

2. verb

Identifying the grammatical parts of a sentence and how they relate to each other.

Students practiced parsing sentences to find the subject, verb, and object.

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