parallel
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpæɹəlɛl/
note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈpæɹəˌlɛl/
enpr: păr′ə-lĕl'
note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈpɛɹəˌlɛl/
enpr: pĕr′ə-lĕl'
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈpar(ə)ləl/
Forms: form: parallels
form: paralleling
form: parallelling[UK nonstandard]
form: paralleled
form: paralleled
form: parallelled[UK nonstandard]
form: parallelled[UK nonstandard]
form: paralell
Etymology: From Middle French parallèle and its etymon Latin parallēlus, parallēlos. The verb is from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The needle […] doth parallel and place itself upon the true meridian.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To construct or place something parallel to something else.
examples: text: Archaic covered bridges lingered fearsomely out of the past in pockets of the hills, and the half-abandoned railway track paralleling the river seemed to exhale a nebulously visible air of desolation.
ref: 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
text: Racing on, we parallel the M5 doing 95mph, according to the app on my smartphone.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66:
glosses: Of a path etc: To be parallel to something else.
glosses: Of a process etc: To be analogous to something else.
examples: text: Although its spokesmen do not hesitate to parallel their oppression to that of blacks, the gay male community has chosen to ignore the voices of black gay men.
ref: 1984 April 14, Reginald Shepherd, “White Men's Black Men”, in Gay Community News, page 11:
text: These scholars argue that gender and sexual identity are like nature and the environment; they parallel the queer/performance connection to the environmental/performance connection. I consider, instead, how all these categories actively interact and overlap.
ref: 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 119:
glosses: To compare or liken something to something else.
examples: text: [H]is life is paralel’d / Euen with the ſtroke and line of his great Iuſtice: […]
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 76, column 1:
glosses: To make to conform to something else in character, motive, aim, etc.
examples: text: He will ſteale ſir an Egge out of a Cloiſter: for rapes and rauiſhments he paralels Neſſus.
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 248, column 2:
glosses: To equal; to match; to correspond to.
examples: text: Macb[eth]. ’Twas a rough Night. / Lenox. My young remembrance cannot paralell / A fellow to it.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 137, column 2:
text: Who cannot parallel theſe ſtories out of his experience?
ref: 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Importunitie and Opportunity of the Place, Conference, Discourse, Singing, Dauncing, Musicke, Amorous Tales, Obiects, Kissing, Familiaritie, Tokens, Presents, Bribes, Promises, Protestations, Teares, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 2, subsection 4, page 587:
text: Many have exerciſed their Wits in parallelling the Inconveniences of Regal and Popular Government, […]
ref: 1680, Robert Filmer, “It Is Unnatural for the People to Govern, or Chose Governours”, in Patriarcha: or The Natural Power of Kings, London: […] Walter Davis […], →OCLC, page 65:
glosses: To produce or adduce as a parallel.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: antiparallel
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: embarrassingly parallel
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: forty-ninth parallel
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: imparalleled
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallel algorithm
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallel circuit
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallel computing
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallelism
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallelogram
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: parallel universe
sense: Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, noun, or verb parallel
word: unparalleled
Related terms: sequential
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