( )

( ) (English name parentheses or round brackets)

1. Encloses supplemental information.

   Sen. John McCain (R., Arizona) spoke at length.

2. Encloses a commentary.

   I gave it to Fred (who was going there anyways) before I left.

3. Encloses optional variants or variant elements of words, inflections, spellings or pronunciations.

   Go get the dog(s) - Here, s is a shorthand for the plural dogs.

   You should (re)write that story. - Here, re is an optional prefix re-.

   Blue is my favo(u)rite colo(u)r. - Here, u is an alternative spelling (color/colour).

   A variable with persistence that is currently above (below) its mean will tend not go below (above) its mean for some time.

   (S)he likes dogs.

   Antarctica /ænˈtɑɹ(k)tɪkə/, terminator /ˈtɜːmɪneɪtə(ɹ)/

4. Encloses narration.
   • 2006, “Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness”, in Scott Pilgrim, volume 3 (in English):

     Envy: What's this for? Is this for the band?
     Scott: It's... It's for you. I wrote a song.
     (weird pause)
     Envy: Why?

5. Encloses a letter or number starting an item in a list.

   (1) New York, (2) London, (3) Paris.

   (A) New York, (B) London, (C) Paris.

   • 2006, “Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness”, in Scott Pilgrim, volume 3 (in English):

     Scott: Can I get some free candy? Can you make it happen? Just some chocolate, maybe?
     Wallace: No, because (A) you'll take half an hour to decide what you want, and (B) no sugar for you!!

6. (papyrology, epigraphy) Encloses restored elements of text that were (intentionally) omitted by the original scribe as an abbreviation.
7. (phonetics) A transcription delimiter for silent utterances. It may enclose a transcription of a mouthed utterance derived from lip-reading, such as (ʃːː), or of the length of a pause between utterances, such as (1.3 sec). (...), (..) and (.) are used for increasingly brief pauses.
8. Used as quotation marks (e.g. in Arabic).

Some style guides prescribe square brackets ⟨[ ]⟩ for parenthetical information within parentheses.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:( ).

• (parenthetical phrase) — —

• (…) (used when omitting a section in quoted text)
• (sic) (used to indicate text quoted as-is from the source)
• (!)
• (?)

• to, toi (Lojban)

Punctuation

( )

1. (mathematics) Encloses a mathematical phrase that has increased precedence in terms of operators.

   20 / 2 + 8 = 10 + 8 = 18

   20 / (2 + 8) = 20 / 10 = 2

2. (mathematics) Denotes the greatest common divisor of two integers.

   (54,24)=6

3. (mathematics) Denotes a coordinate.

   (x,y)

4. (regular expressions) Defines a marked subexpression, to be matched using the backslash (\1, \2, etc.)

   ([abc])([def]) — \2 matches the 2nd subexpression

5. (programming) Used when defining a new function, enclosing the list of parameters.

   getSum (a, b)

       result = a + b

   return result

6. (programming) Used when calling an existing function, enclosing the list of arguments.

   result = getFirstNumber() + getSecondNumber() + getThirdNumber()

7. (programming) Used with some expressions and conditionals, like "if", "switch", "for", "while", etc., in certain programming languages.

   if (x > 7) then printf "success!" end

8. (chemistry) Encloses a repeated unit in a polymer.

   glutaraldehyde = CH₂(CH₂CHO)₂

9. (accounting) Indicates that a number is negative in place of a minus sign.[1]

   (20)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:( ).

• (mathematical precedence) { }, [ ]

• ((( )))

( )

1. sometimes used to enclose numbers to distinguish from letters

   ရက်ပေါင်း (၁၀၀) အလွန်

   rakpaung: (100) a.lwan

   100 days later

• (tone indicator): single left parentheses

( )

1. Encloses the pronunciation to a character the reader may not necessarily know.

   黿（yuán）

   黿 (read as yuán)

2. (Internet slang) Used to provide a deeper or second meaning to a phrase. Probably from Japanese 義(ぎ)訓(くん) (gikun, “invented reading”). Compare English read (“used after a euphemism to introduce the intended, more blunt meaning of a term”).

   那個男（shuài）人（gē）

   that man (read: hunk)

3. (Internet slang) Added to the end of a message, with short text inside, as a sort of tone indicator.

   回家看看（bushi）

   go take a look when you get home /j

   (literally, “go take a look when you get home (not really)”)

4. (Internet slang, with no content inside) Used to censor vulgar, profane or sensitive words or characters. Compare x in Latin alphabet. A formal way to censor words in Chinese is using × instead.

   他（）的！

   Fxxk that!

5. (Internet slang, by extension, with no content inside) Added to the end of a message to indicate a lighthearted or joking tone.

   回家看看（（（

   go take a look when you get home /lh

6. (Internet slang, by extension, with no content inside) Added to the end of a message, either left parenthesis only or both, used in place of ellipses …… (which can be read as indecisiveness) to imply an abrupt and intentional end to an incomplete sentence.

   確實如此，然而（）

   I mean that's true, but 🙃

• 寫作……讀作……／写作……读作…… (literally “written as… but read as…”)

• Victor Mair, "Furigana-like glossing in Mandarin". Language Log.

• (tone indicator): single left parentheses or none

( )

1. Used as a plaintext fallback of ruby: encloses a regular or traditional pronunciation to kanji (sometimes other types of words, e.g. katakana in parentheses following an English word) that the readers may not necessarily know how to read.

   檸檬（れもん）

   檸檬 (remon)

2. Used as a plaintext fallback of ruby: encloses an invented reading or a pronunciation borrowed from another language, which follows usually but not necessarily a kanji word, to conveys the word's deeper or second meaning (see 義(ぎ)訓(くん) (gikun)).

   親友（ライバル）

   close friend (rival)

3. (Internet slang, with no content inside) Used to censor vulgar, profane or sensitive words or characters. A formal way to censor words in Japanese is using × or ○ instead. Compare 自主規制 in Japanese and x in Latin alphabet.
4. (Internet slang) Added to the end of a message, with short text inside (the right parenthesis is optional), as a sort of tone indicator.

   それは無理だ（w

   That's impossible (LOL

5. (Internet slang, by extension, with no content inside) Added to the end of a message to indicate a lighthearted or joking tone (the right parenthesis is optional),.

• (笑) ((笑)), 笑
• (ry ((ry)
• (汗) ((汗))
• (震え声)

( )

1. sometimes used to enclose digits to distinguish from letters

   တ္ၚဲကောန်ဂကူမန်မရနုက်ကဵု (၆၈) ဝါ

   The 68th Mon National Day