Bracket - definition of bracket by The Free Dictionary /bracket
bracket Also found in: , , , , , , .
bracketsBrackets ( [ ] ), sometimes known as square brackets, are similar to
in that they are used to contain information that does not impact the overall grammatical structure of the sentence. However, rather than indicating information that is supplemental or incidental, brackets are usually used within quoted speech to indicate that a writer has added material to the quotation to provide clarifying or explanatory information.brack·et
(brăk′ĭt)n.1. a.
A simple rigid structure in the shape of an L, one arm of which is fixed to a vertical surface, the other projecting horizontally to support a shelf or other weight.b.
A small shelf or shelves supported by such structures.2.
Architecture A decorative or weight-bearing structural unit, two sides of which form a right angle with one arm flush against a wall and the other flush beneath a projecting surface, such as eaves or a bay window.3.
A wall-anchored fixture for gas or electricity.4. a.
A square bracket.b.
An angle bracket.c.
Mathematics See .5.
Chiefly British One of a pair of parentheses.6.
A classification or grouping, especially within a sequence of numbers or grades, as a category of incomes sharing the same tax rate.7.
A treelike diagram showing the matchups between competitors in different rounds of a tournament.8. a.
The distance between two impacting shells, the first aimed beyond a target and the second aimed short of it, used to determine the range for artillery fire.b.
The shells fired in such a manner.tr.v. brack·et·ed, brack·et·ing, brack·ets 1.
To furnish or support with a bracket or brackets.2.
To place within or as if within brackets.3.
To classify or group together.4.
To include or exclude by establishing specific boundaries.5.
To fire beyond and short of (a target) in order to determine artillery range.[Possibly French braguette, codpiece, diminutive of brague, breeches, from Old Proven?al braga, from Latin brācae, from Gaulish brāca, leg covering.]bracket ('braek?t) n1.
(Furniture) an L-shaped or other support fixed to a wall to hold a shelf, etc2.
(Building) one or more wall shelves carried on brackets3.
(Architecture) architect a support projecting from the side of a wall or other structure. See also , , 24.
(Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) Also called: square bracket either of a pair of characters, [ ], used to enclose a section of writing or printing to separate it from the main text5.
(Mathematics) a general name for , , 66. a group or category falling within or between certain defined limits: the lower income bracket. 7.
(General Physics) the distance between two preliminary shots of artillery fire in range-finding8.
(Skiing) a skating figure consisting of two arcs meeting at a point, tracing the shape ?vb (tr) , -kets, -keting or -keted9.
(Furniture) to fix or support by means of a bracket or brackets10.
(Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) to put (written or printed matter) in brackets, esp as being irrelevant, spurious, or bearing a separate relationship of some kind to the rest of the text11.
(Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) to couple or join (two lines of text, etc) with a brace12.
(often foll by with) to group or class together: to bracket Marx with the philosophers. 13.
(Military) to adjust (artillery fire) until the target is hit[C16: from Old French braguette codpiece, diminutive of bragues breeches, from Old Proven?al braga, from Latin brāca breeches]brack•et
(ˈbraek ɪt)
a supporting piece, often L- or scroll-shaped, projecting from a wall or the like to bear the weight of a shelf, cornice, etc., or to reinforce the angle between two members.
a shelf or shelves so supported.
a wall fixture for holding a lamp, clock, telephone, etc.
Also called
one of two marks, [or], used in writing or printing to enclose parenthetical matter, interpolations, etc.
brackets, parentheses of various forms indicating that the enclosed quantity is to be treated as a unit.
a class, division, or grouping, as of persons in relation to their income or age.
a projecting fixture for gas or electricity.
gun range or elevation producing both shorts and overs on a target.
to furnish with or support by a bracket or brackets.
to place within brackets.
to associate, mention, or class together:
The problems were bracketed together.
to place (gunshots) both beyond and short of a target.
to photograph (additional shots) at exposure levels above and below the estimated correct exposure.
[;80; earlier also brag(g)et (in architecture)] bracketPast participle: bracketedGerund: bracketingImperativePresentPreteritePresent ContinuousPresent PerfectPast ContinuousPast PerfectFutureFuture PerfectFuture ContinuousPresent Perfect ContinuousFuture Perfect ContinuousPast Perfect ContinuousConditionalPast ConditionalImperativebracketbracketPresentI bracketyou brackethe/she/it bracketswe bracketyou bracketthey bracketPreteriteI bracketedyou bracketedhe/she/it bracketedwe bracketedyou bracketedthey bracketedPresent ContinuousI am bracketingyou are bracketinghe/she/it is bracketingwe are bracketingyou are bracketingthey are bracketingPresent PerfectI have bracketedyou have bracketedhe/she/it has bracketedwe have bracketedyou have bracketedthey have bracketedPast ContinuousI was bracketingyou were bracketinghe/she/it was bracketingwe were bracketingyou were bracketingthey were bracketingPast PerfectI had bracketedyou had bracketedhe/she/it had bracketedwe had bracketedyou had bracketedthey had bracketedFutureI will bracketyou will brackethe/she/it will bracketwe will bracketyou will bracketthey will bracketFuture PerfectI will have bracketedyou will have bracketedhe/she/it will have bracketedwe will have bracketedyou will have bracketedthey will have bracketedFuture ContinuousI will be bracketingyou will be bracketinghe/she/it will be bracketingwe will be bracketingyou will be bracketingthey will be bracketingPresent Perfect ContinuousI have been bracketingyou have been bracketinghe/she/it has been bracketingwe have been bracketingyou have been bracketingthey have been bracketingFuture Perfect ContinuousI will have been bracketingyou will have been bracketinghe/she/it will have been bracketingwe will have been bracketingyou will have been bracketingthey will have been bracketingPast Perfect ContinuousI had been bracketingyou had been bracketinghe/she/it had been bracketingwe had been bracketingyou had been bracketingthey had been bracketingConditionalI would bracketyou would brackethe/she/it would bracketwe would bracketyou would bracketthey would bracketPast ConditionalI would have bracketedyou would have bracketedhe/she/it would have bracketedwe would have bracketedyou would have bracketedthey would have bracketed
Switch to Noun1.bracket - a category falling within certain defined limits - a group of things of the same kind that belong toge "a set of books"; "a set of golf clubs"; "a set of teeth", ,
- a category of taxpayers based on the amount of their income - a category of merchandise based on their price2.bracket - either of two punctuation marks (`') used in computer programming and sometimes used to enclose textual material,
- the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases3.bracket - either of two punctuation marks ([ or ]) used to enclose textual material,
- the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases4.bracket - a support projecting from a wall (as to hold a shelf),
- an L-shaped metal bracket - an ornamental scroll-shaped bracket (especially one used to support a wall fixture); "the bust of Napoleon stood on a console",
- (architecture) a triangular bracket of brick or stone (usually of slight extent) - (architecture) one of a set of ornamental brackets under a cornice - a decorative wall bracket for holding candles or other sources of light - a bracket to support a shelf - any device that bears the wei "there was no place to attach supports for a shelf"Verb1.bracket - s "bracket bookshelves", , ,
- be the "The beam holds up the roof"; "He supported me with one hand while I balanced on the beam"; "What's holding that mirror?"2.bracket - "Please bracket this remark",
- prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, "Edit a book on lexical semantics"; "she edited the letters of the politician so as to omit the most personal passages"3.bracket - classify or group - arrange in "Can you group these shapes together?"bracketnoun1. , , , , , , , , , ,
Do you fall outside the age bracket?2. , , , , , , ,
adjustable wall bracketsverb1. , , , , , , , ,
Austrian wines are often bracketed with those of northern Germany.bracketnounA division of persons or things by quality, rank, or grade:, , , , , .verbTo come or bring together in one's mind or imagination:, , , , , .
?????????????? ???????????????? ??????? ?????????????? ???????? ??? ?????konzolazávorkakulatá závorkapodpěrap?i?adit do té?e kategoriegrupperehyldeknaegtparenteshakasuljehakasulkukannatinluokkapidinkonzolzárójelbe teszkrappi, vinkill, knegtisetja í sviga/hornklofaskipa í tiltekinn hóp/flokksvigi, hornklofikron?teinaspintisskliausteliaisugrupuotisuskliaustiiekavasieslēgt iekavāskron?teinspielīdzinātsagrupētda? do zátvoriekkonzolapriradi? k sebekonzolaoklepajhakparentesintervallparentesayn? kümeye koymakk??ebentparentezparentez i?ine almakbracket [ˈbrækɪt]A. N1. (gen) →
m; (= angle bracket) →
f (Archit) →
f2. (Typ) (usu pl, round) →
m inv (also square bracket) →
m; (angled) →
m (agudo); (curly) →
fin brackets → entre see also
1 Dsee also
F3. (= group) →
fhe's in the ?200,000 a year bracket →
income bracket →
m de B. VT1. (Constr) (= join by brackets) →
con /escuadras2. (Typ) →
/3. (fig) (also bracket together) → , to bracket sth with sth →
algo con algobracket off VT + ADV → ,
bracket [ˈbrækət] n (made of metal) →
m (= group) (as regards age, income) →
fincome bracket →
(= round bracket) →
fin brackets →
(= brace bracket) →
f (= square bracket) →
m vt [+ words] → bracket together vt [+ things] → bracket n (= angle bracket) → Winkeltr?ger m; (for shelf) → (Regal) m; (Archit) →
f; (of stone) →
m (Typ, Mus) →
f; round/square/angle or pointed or broken brackets → /eckige/spitze
pl; open/close brackets →
auf/zu; in brackets → in
(= gas bracket) →
m; (for electric light) → (Wand) m (= group) →
f, →
f; the lower income bracket → die
Einkommensgruppe vt (= put in brackets) →
(also bracket together, = join by brackets) → mit einer
; (Mus also) → mit einer
; (fig: = group together) → bracket [ˈbrækɪt]1. na. (support) → ; (shelf) → b. (Typ) (usu pl) →
f invround/square brackets →
/in brackets → c. (group) → , income bracket → 2. vt (Typ) →
(fig) (also bracket together) → bracket ('br?kit)
(usually in plural) marks (eg ( ),
() , & & etc) used to group together one or more words etc.
скоба
parêntese
die Klammer
parentes , , ,
?????? ?????
tanda kurung
svigi, hornklofi
skliausteliai
tanda kurungan ,
???? ?? ???
parantez?; acolad?
parentes[tecken]
parentez(i?areti)
дужки
????? ? ????? ? ????? ??????
d?u ngo?c ??n 2.
a support for a shelf etc. The shelf fell down because the brackets were not strong enough. klamp
???????? ????????
подпора
konzola, podpěra, dr?ák
der Halter
hyldeknaegt
στ?ριγμα ραφιο? ,
???? ????????
???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ??????
krappi, vinkill, knegti
kron?teinas
kron?teins
pendakap ,
кронштеин,
п?дп?рка; кронштейн
?????? ?? ???? ?? ????? ? ????? ????
verb – past tense, past participle 'bracketed – 1.
to enclose (words etc) by brackets.
tussen hakies sit, groepeer
?????? ???????? ??? ?????
слагам скоби
p?r entre parênteses
dát do závorek
saette i parentes
β?ζω σε παρ?νθεση
colocar entre paréntesis
sulgudesse panema
?? ????? ???? ????
panna sulkeisiin
mettre entre crochets/parenthèses
?????? ??????????????
????? ??? ???? ????
staviti u zagradu
zárójelbe tesz
menempatkan dalam tanda kurung
setja í sviga/hornklofa
mettere fra parentesi
括弧に入れる
suskliausti
ieslēgt iekavās
tussen haakjes zetten
wzi?? w nawias
?? ??? ??? ?? ??????
p?r entre parênteses
a pune ?n parantez?
заключать в скобки
da? do zátvoriek
postaviti med oklepaje
staviti u zagradu
s?tta inom parentes
parentez i?ine almak
брати в дужки
??t trong d?u ngo?c 2.
(sometimes with together) to group together (similar or equal people or things).
???????? ??????? ????????
групирам
p?i?adit do té?e kategorie
auf die gleiche Stufe stellen
συγκατατ?σσω, τοποθετ? στην ?δια ομ?δα ,
ühte punti panema
???? ???? ????
mettre dans la même catégorie
???????? ?????
?? ??? ????
klasificirati zajedno
?sszekapcsol
mengelompokkan
skipa í tiltekinn hóp/flokk
sugrupuoti
pielīdzināt; sagrupēt
memasukkan
in een adem noemen ,
???? ???? ???
a pune ?n aceea?i categorie
группировать
priradi? k sebe
postaviti v isto kategorijo
gruppera, klassificera
ayn? kümeye koymak
與…視為同類(相提並論)
ставити поруч
????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ????
把…归为一类，把…相提并论 bracket fungus a round, flat fungus that grows out horizontally on the trunks of trees.
?????? ????????
вид гъба
der Baumpilz
ε?δο? μ?κητα που αναπτ?σσεται σε κορμο?? δ?ντρων ,
???? ????? ??
etel?ns?rm?k??p?
?? ??? ?????? ?? ??????
gy?r?gomba
cendawan pohon
sáldsveppur
さるのこしかけ
sejenis kulat
biefstukzwam
????? ?? ????
гриб-трутовик
lesna goba
vrsta gljivica
?????????????????????????????????????????
a?a? g?vdesinde büyüyen mantar
架狀菌，多孔菌
гриб-трутовик
?????? ?? ??? ??????? ??????
檐状菌，多孔菌
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At the head of the stairway hung a lamp with a dirty chimney that was fastened by a bracket to the wall. Over the head of the bed was an alabaster bracket, on which a beautiful sculptured angel stood, with drooping wings, holding out a crown of myrtle-leaves. As he was speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out, took my luggage. He was no longer astonished when he searched on to find in the register this note, placed in a bracket against his name: -- winks and points to the portrait of a singularly attractive maiden pinned up on Tim's telescope bracket above the steering-wheel. This wineglass has been smashed all over the place, but one of its splinters lies on the high bracket beside the mantelpiece. For a long time he gazed upward at it, and then in an attempt to get nearer to it he rested his knee upon a wooden bracket on the wall. Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? A small piano occupied a corner of the room, with the score of "Don Giovanni" open upon the bracket. In lifting her arms to perk up the bow at her throat she knocked a hat off the bracket. Above each card-table stood a magnificent china bowl placed on a gilt and carved bracket fixed to the wall. Miss Stacy's photograph occupied the place of honor, and Anne made a sentimental point of keeping fresh flowers on the bracket under it.
▲bracket▼
For webmasters:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the family of punctuation marks. For other uses, see .
"Parenthesis" and "parenthetical" redirect here. For other uses, see .
"( )" redirects here. For the Sigur Rós album, see . For other uses, see .
’  '
[ ]  ( )  { }  ? ?
,  ?  、
-  –  —  ―
…  ...  . . .
  <>
‘ ’  “ ”  ' '  " "
/  /
  
 % ‰
′  ″  ?
|  ‖  ?
A bracket is a tall
mark typically used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text. The matched pair may be described as opening and closing, or left and right symbols.
Forms include round (also called "parentheses"), square, curly (also called "braces"), and various other pairs of symbols.
In addition to referring to the class of all types of brackets, the unqualified word bracket is most commonly used to refer to a specific type of bracket: in modern American usage this is usually the square bracket and in modern British usage this is usually the round bracket.
Chevrons (& &) were the earliest type of bracket to appear in .
coined the term lunula to refer to the rounded parentheses (), recalling the shape of the crescent .
Some of the following names are regional or contextual.
( ) – parentheses, brackets (UK, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia), parens, round brackets, soft brackets, first brackets or circle brackets
[ ] – square brackets, closed brackets, hard brackets, second brackets, crotchets, or brackets (US)
{ } – braces are "two connecting marks used in printing"; and in music "to connect staves to be performed at the same time" (UK and US), French brackets, curly brackets, definite brackets, swirly brackets, curly braces, birdie brackets, Scottish brackets, squirrelly brackets, gullwings, seagulls, squiggly brackets, twirly brackets, Tuborg brackets (DK), accolades (NL), pointy brackets, third brackets, fancy brackets, water buffalo brackets, or longhorn steer brackets.
〈 〉– pointy brackets, angle brackets, triangular brackets, diamond brackets, tuples, or chevrons
& & – inequality signs, pointy brackets, or brackets. Sometimes referred to as angle brackets, in such cases as
markup. Occasionally known as broken brackets or brokets.
? ?; ? ? – corner brackets
? ? – double square brackets, white square brackets
Guillemets,
and <>, are sometimes referred to as chevrons or [double] angle brackets.
The characters
and <>, known as
or angular quote brackets, are actually
used in several European languages. Which one of each pair is the opening quote mark and which is the closing quote varies between languages.
In English, typographers generally prefer to not set brackets in , even when the enclosed text is italic. However, in other languages like German, if brackets enclose text in italics, they are usually set in italics too.
Various for other uses, see , , , , and
Due to , titles like ":)" redirect here. For typographical portrayals of faces, see .
Parentheses
(singular, parenthesis ) (also called simply brackets, or round brackets, curved brackets, oval brackets, or, colloquially, parens ) contain material that serves to clarify (in the manner of a ) or is aside from the main point. A milder effect may be obtained by using a pair of commas as the , though if the sentence contains commas for other purposes, visual confusion may result.
In American usage, parentheses are usually considered separate from other brackets, and calling them "brackets" is unusual.
Parentheses may be used in formal writing to add supplementary information, such as "Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) spoke at length". They can also indicate shorthand for "" for nouns, e. g. "the claim(s)". It can also be used for , especially in languages with , e. g. "(s)he agreed with his (her) physician", .
Parenthetical phrases have been used extensively in informal writing and stream of consciousness literature. Examples include the southern American author
and ) as well as poet .
Parentheses have historically been used where the
is currently used in alternatives, such as "parenthesis)(parentheses". Examples of this usage can be seen in editions of .
Parentheses may be nested (generally with one set (such as this) inside another set). This is not commonly used in formal writing (though sometimes other brackets [especially square brackets] will be used for one or more inner set of parentheses [in other words, secondary {or even tertiary} phrases can be found within the main parenthetical sentence]).
Any punctuation inside parentheses or other brackets is independent of the rest of the text: "Mrs. Pennyfarthing (What? Yes, that was her name!) was my landlady." In this usage, the explanatory text in the parentheses is a . (Parenthesized text is usually short and within a single sentence. Where several sentences of supplemental material are used in parentheses the final
would be within the parentheses, or simply omitted. Again, the parenthesis implies that the meaning and flow of the text is supplemental to the rest of the text and the whole would be unchanged were the parenthesized sentences removed.)
Parentheses are included in the syntaxes of many computer programming languages. Typically needed t to tell the compiler what data type the Method/Function needs to look for first in order to initialise. In some cases, such as in , parentheses are a fundamental construct of the language.
Parentheses in
signify a different
of operators. For example: 2 + 3 × 4 equals 14, since the multiplication is done before the addition. However, (2 + 3) × 4 equals 20, because the parentheses override normal precedence, causing the addition to be done first. Some authors follow the convention in mathematical equations that, when parentheses have one level of nesting, the inner pair are parentheses and the outer pair are square brackets. Example:
{\displaystyle [(2+3)\times 4]^{2}=400.}
A related convention is that when parentheses have two levels of nesting, curly brackets (braces) are the outermost pair. Following this convention, when more than three levels of nesting are needed, often a cycle of parentheses, square brackets, and curly brackets will continue. This helps to distinguish between one such level and the next.
Parentheses are also used to set apart the
in mathematical . For example, f(x) is the function f applied to the
parentheses are used to denote
(4, 7) may represent the point located at 4 on the x-axis and 7 on the y-axis. Parentheses (0, 5), for example, is the interval between 0 and 5, not including 0 or 5.
Parentheses may also be used to represent a , and in chemistry to denote a .
Since 2014, antisemites have used
around the names of people to denote them as Jewish.
Unpaired parenthesis
used as indexes, rather than
or numbers, followed by unpaired parenthesis, are used in ordered
especially in:
technical writing and diagrams,
In more formal usage, "" may refer to the entire bracketed text, not just to the punctuation marks used (so all the text in this set of round brackets may be said to be "", "a parenthetical", or "a parenthetical phrase").
Square brackets—also called crotchets or simply brackets (US)—are mainly used to insert explanatory material or to mark where a passage was omitted from an original material by someone other than the original author, or to mark modifications in quotations.
A bracketed
[…] is often used to indicate omitted material: "I'd like to thank [several unimportant people] for their tolerance..." Bracketed comments inserted into a quote indicate when the original has been modified for clarity: "I appreciate it [the honor], but I must refuse", and "the future of psionics [see definition] is in doubt". Or one can quote the original statement "I hate to do laundry" with a (sometimes grammatical) modification inserted: He "hate[s] to do laundry".
Additionally, a small letter can be replaced by a capital one, when the beginning of the original text is omitted for , for example, when referring to a
original: "To the extent that policymakers and elite opinion in general have made use of economic analysis at all, they have, as the saying goes, done so the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination", it can be quoted succinctly as: "[P]olicymakers (...) made use of economic analysis (...) the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination." When nested parentheses are needed, brackets are used as a substitute for the inner pair of parentheses within the outer pair. When deeper levels of nesting are needed, convention is to alternate between parentheses and brackets at each level.
Alternatively, empty square brackets can also indicate omitted material, usually single letter only. The original "Reading is also a process and it also changes you." can be rewritten in a quote as: It has been suggested that reading can "also change[] you".
The bracketed expression "" is used after a quote or reprinted text to indicate the passage appears exactly as in the original source, where it may otherwise appear that a mistake has been made in reproduction.
In translated works, brackets are used to signify the same word or phrase in the original language to avoid ambiguity. For example: He is trained in the way of the open hand [karate].
Brackets (called move-left symbols or move right symbols) are added to the sides of text in
to indicate changes in indentation:
[To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
]Paradise Lost[
Brackets are used in
in a variety of notations, including standard notations for , , the , the , the , and .
Brackets can also be used in
to represent the
or to denote distributed charge in a .
Brackets are used in many computer , especially those
the , to indicate
indexing operators. In this context, the opening bracket is often pronounced as "sub", indicating a subscript.
In linguistics,
are generally enclosed within brackets, often using the , whereas
transcriptions typically use paired . Pipes (| |) are often used to indicate a
rather than phonemic representation. Other conventions are double slashes (// //), double pipes (|| ||) and curly brackets ({ }). In , square brackets usually surround the section of a dictionary entry which contains the
of the word the entry defines.
Brackets are used to denote parts of the text that need to be checked when preparing drafts prior to finalizing a document. They often denote points that have not yet been agreed to in legal drafts and the year in which a report was made for certain
decisions.
Curly brackets- { } —also called braces in the US (or, colloquially, squiggly brackets)—are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines). The musical terms for this mark joining staves are
and "", and connect two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously. In
they delimit , and in writing, they may be used similarly, "Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me". In many programming languages, they enclose groups of . Such languages ( being one of the best-known examples) are therefore called .
General usage in North American English favours the term brace rather than curly bracket.[]
In , curly brackets are often also used to denote the
between two quantities.
This section needs additional citations for . Please help
by . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2012) ()
? ?, similar to the commonly used
(&), are often used to enclose highlighted material.
In physical sciences, chevrons are used to denote an average over time or over another continuous parameter. For example,
{\displaystyle \left\langle V(t)^{2}\right\rangle =\lim _{T\to \infty }{\frac {1}{T}}\int _{-T/2}^{T/2}V(t)^{2}\,{\rm {d}}t.}
of two vectors is commonly written as
{\displaystyle \langle a,b\rangle }
, but the notation
{\displaystyle (a,b)}
is also used.
In mathematical physics, especially , it is common to write the inner product between elements as
{\displaystyle \langle a|b\rangle }
, as a short version of
{\displaystyle \langle a|\cdot |b\rangle }
{\displaystyle \langle a|{\hat {O}}|b\rangle }
{\displaystyle {\hat {O}}}
is an . This is known as
or bra-ket notation.
In , chevrons or parentheses are used to denote
and other , whereas curly brackets are used for unordered sets.
In , chevrons indicate
(i.e., written letters) or , as in "The English word /kaet/ is spelled ?cat?."
In , they may be used for mechanical transliterations of a text into the Latin script.
In , and hence in many editions of pre-modern works, chevrons denote sections of the text which are illegib the editor will often insert their own reconstruction where possible within them.
Chevrons are infrequently used to denote words that are thought instead of spoken, such as:
? What an unusual flower! ?
The mathematical or logical symbols for greater-than (&) and less-than (&) when either symbol is bisected by a vertical line, it represents "not greater than" or "not less than," respectively. These
are not punctuation marks when used, as intended, to represent an inequality. However, as true chevrons are not present on , the available less-than and greater-than symbols are often used instead. They are loosely referred to as angle[d] brackets or chevrons in this case.[]
Single and double pairs of comparison operators (&&, &&) (meaning much smaller than and much greater than) are sometimes used instead of
(<>) (used as ) when the proper characters are not available.
In , chevrons are often used to mark dialogue that has been translated notionally f in other words, if a character is speaking another language, instead of writing in the other language and providing a translation, one writes the translated text within chevrons. Of course, since no foreign language is actually written, this is only notionally translated.[]
Chevron-like symbols are part of standard , and
punctuation, where they generally enclose the titles of books: ︿ and ﹀ or ︽ and ︾ for traditional , and 〈 and 〉 or 《 and 》 for
printing. See also .
In , chevrons may be used as .
In , angle brackets are used as quotation marks.
languages use lenticular brackets 【 】, a combination of brackets and parentheses called 方頭括號 fāngtóu guāhào in
and すみ付き sumitsuki in . They are used for inference[] in Chinese and used in titles and headings in Japanese.
The floor corner brackets ? and ?, the ceiling corner brackets ? and ? are used to denote the integer .
The Quine corners ? and ? have at least two uses in mathematical logic: either as , a generalization of quotation marks, or to denote the
of the enclosed expression.
Half brackets are used in English to mark added text, such as in translations: "Bill saw ?her?".
In editions of
texts, half brackets, ? and ? or ? and ?, enclose text which is lacking in the papyrus due to damage, but can be restored by virtue of another source, such as an ancient quotation of the text transmitted by the papyrus. For example,
Iambus 1.2 reads: ?κ τ?ν ?κου βο?ν κολλ??βου π?ιπρ?σκουσιν. A hole in the papyrus has obliterated βου π, but these letters are supplied by an ancient commentary on the poem. Second intermittent sources can be between ? and ?. Quine corners are sometimes used instead of half brackets.
Double brackets (or white square brackets), ? ?, are used to indicate the semantic evaluation function in
for natural language and
for programming languages. The brackets stand for a function that maps a linguistic expression to its “denotation” or semantic value. Double brackets may also refer to the mathematical .
Known as "spike parentheses" (: piggparenteser) ? and ? are used in Swedish dictionaries.
The various bracket characters are frequently used in many computer languages as operators or for other syntax markup. For instance, in C-like languages, { and } are often used to delimit a code block, and the parameters of method calls are generally enclosed by ( and ). In C, C++, Java and other C-derived languages—as well as in Scheme-influenced languages that have adopted C/Java syntax, such as JavaScript—the "{}" symbols are referred to as "braces" or "curly braces" and never as brackets. Since the term "brace" is documented in the definitive programming specifications for these languages, it is preferable to use the correct term brace so there is no confusion between the brace (used to denote compound statements) and the bracket, used to denote arrays.
Main article:
In addition to the use of
to specify the , both parentheses and brackets are used to denote an , also referred to as a half-open range. The notation [a,c) is used to indicate an interval from a to c that is inclusive of a but exclusive of c. That is, [5, 12) would be the set of all real numbers between 5 and 12, including 5 but not 12. The numbers may come as close as they like to 12, including 11.999 and so forth (with any
number of 9s), but 12.0 is not included. In some European countries, the notation [5, 12[ is also used for this. The endpoint adjoining the bracket is known as closed, whereas the endpoint adjoining the parenthesis is known as open. If both types of brackets are the same, the entire interval may be referred to as closed or open as appropriate. Whenever
or -∞ is used as an endpoint, it is normally considered open and adjoined to a parenthesis. See
for a more complete treatment.
In , chevrons are also used as part of
formalism, , to note vectors from the
of the Bra ?A| and the Ket |B?. Mathematicians will also commonly write ?a, b? for the
of two vectors. In statistical mechanics, chevrons denote ensemble or time average. Chevrons are used in
to write , and to denote the
by a collection of elements. Note that
chevrons are not always (and even not by all users) distinguished from a pair of less-than and greater-than signs &&, which are sometimes used as a
of chevrons.
and , brackets denote the . In group theory, the commutator [g, h] is commonly defined as g -1 h -1 g h . In ring theory, the commutator [a, b] is defined as a b - b a . Furthermore, in ring theory, braces denote the
where {a, b} is defined as a b + b a . The bracket is also used to denote the , or more generally the Lie bracket in any .
Various notations, like the
have a similar effect to brackets in specifying order of operations, or otherwise grouping several characters together for a common purpose.
language, braces define a set and chevrons define a sequence.
Traditionally in , contra amounts are placed in parentheses. A debit balance account in a series of credit balances will have brackets and vice versa.
Brackets are used in some countries in the citation of
to identify parallel citations to non-official reporters. For example: Chronicle Pub. Co. v. , (1998) 54 Cal.2d 548, [7 Cal.Rptr. 109]. In some other countries (such as ), square brackets are used to indicate that the year is part of the citation and parentheses are used to indicate the year the judgment was given. For example, National Coal Board v England [1954] AC 403, is in the 1954 volume of the Appeal Cases reports although the decision may have been given in 1953 or earlier, whereas (1954) 98 Sol Jo 176 reports a decision from 1954, in volume 98 of the Solicitor's Journal which may be published in 1955 or later.
When quoted material is in any way altered, the alterations are enclosed in brackets within the quotation. For example: Plaintiff asserts his cause is just, stating, "[m]y causes is
just." Although in the original quoted sentence the word "my" was capitalized, it has been modified in the quotation and the change signalled with brackets. Similarly, where the quotation contained a grammatical error, the quoting author signalled that the error was in the original with "[sic]" (Latin for 'thus'). (California Style Manual, section 4:59 (4th ed.))
, the diagrammatic representation of the series of games played during a tournament usually leading to a single winner, are so named for their resemblance to brackets or braces.
Encoding in digital media[]
Representations of various kinds of brackets in
are given below.
General purpose
Left parenthesis
(parentheses)
Right parenthesis
Left square bracket
Right square bracket
Technical/mathematical
Less-than sign
Greater-than sign
Left curly bracket
{round, square, curly}
Right curly bracket
(Western texts)
Left-pointing double angle quotation mark
Right-pointing double angle quotation mark
Single left-pointing angle quotation mark
Single right-pointing angle quotation mark
Left double quotation mark
“English quote”
Right double quotation mark
Left single quotation mark
‘English quote’
Right single quotation mark
Single low-9 quotation mark
,German quote‘ or ,Polish quote’
Double low-9 quotation mark
,,German quote“ or ,,Polish quote”
Left ceiling
Right ceiling
Left floor
Right floor
Top left corner
?quasi-quotation?
?editorial notation?
Top right corner
Bottom left corner
?editorial notation?
Bottom right corner
Technical/mathematical
(specialized)
Superscript left parenthesis
Superscript right parenthesis
Subscript left parenthesis
Subscript right parenthesis
Left parenthesis upper hook
large parentheses
Left parenthesis extension
Left parenthesis lower hook
Right parenthesis upper hook
Right parenthesis extension
Right parenthesis lower hook
Left square bracket upper corner
large square brackets
Left square bracket extension
Left square bracket lower corner
Right square bracket upper corner
Right square bracket extension
Right square bracket lower corner
Left curly bracket upper hook
large curly brackets
Left curly bracket middle piece
Left curly bracket lower hook
Right curly bracket upper hook
Right curly bracket middle piece
Right curly bracket lower hook
Curly bracket extension
Upper left or lower right curly bracket section
?            ?
?            ?
Upper right or lower left curly bracket section
Top square bracket
horizontal square brackets
Bottom square bracket
Bottom square bracket over top square bracket
Left vertical box line
?boxed text?
Right vertical box line
Top parenthesis
horizontal parentheses
Bottom parenthesis
Top curly bracket
horizontal curly brackets
Bottom curly bracket
Top tortoise shell bracket
tortoise shell brackets
Bottom tortoise shell bracket
Left s-shaped bag delimiter
Right s-shaped bag delimiter
Lower right corner with dot
?pullback…pushout?
Upper left corner with dot
Mathematical left white square bracket
?white square brackets?
Mathematical right white square bracket
Mathematical left angle bracket
⟨ &
Mathematical right angle bracket
⟩ &
Mathematical left double angle bracket
Mathematical right double angle bracket
Mathematical left white tortoise shell bracket
?white tortoise shell brackets?
Mathematical right white tortoise shell bracket
Mathematical left flattened parenthesis
?flattened parentheses?
Mathematical right flattened parenthesis
Left white curly bracket
?white curly brackets?
Right white curly bracket
Left white parenthesis
?white/double parentheses?
Right white parenthesis
left image bracket
Z notation right image bracket
Z notation left binding bracket
Z notation right binding bracket
Left square bracket with underbar
?underlined square brackets?
Right square bracket with underbar
Left square bracket with tick in top corner
?ticked square brackets?
Right square bracket with tick in top corner
Right square bracket with tick in bottom corner
?ticked square brackets?
Left square bracket with tick in bottom corner
Left angle bracket with dot
?dotted angle brackets?
Right angle bracket with dot
Left arc less-than bracket
? sign brackets?
Right arc greater-than bracket
Double left arc greater-than bracket
?inequality sign brackets?
Double right arc less-than bracket
Left black tortoise shell bracket
?black tortoise shell brackets?
Right black tortoise shell bracket
Left wiggly fence
Right wiggly fence
Left double wiggly fence
Right double wiggly fence
Left-pointing curved angle bracket
Right-pointing curved angle bracket
Half brackets
Top left half bracket
?editorial notation?
Top right half bracket
Bottom left half bracket
?editorial notation?
Bottom right half bracket
Medium left parenthesis ornament
?medium parenthesis ornament?
Medium right parenthesis ornament
Medium flattened left parenthesis ornament
?medium flattened parenthesis ornament?
Medium flattened right parenthesis ornament
Medium left-pointing angle bracket ornament
?medium angle bracket ornament?
Medium right-pointing angle bracket ornament
Heavy left-pointing angle bracket ornament
?heavy angle bracket ornament?
Heavy right-pointing angle bracket ornament
Heavy left-pointing angle quotation mark ornament
?heavy angle quotation ornament?
Heavy right-pointing angle quotation mark ornament
Light left tortoise shell bracket ornament
?light tortoise shell bracket ornament?
Light right tortoise shell bracket ornament
Medium left curly bracket ornament
?medium curly bracket ornament?
Medium right curly bracket ornament
Ornate left parenthesis
Ornate right parenthesis
Left low paraphrase bracket
Right low paraphrase bracket
Ogham feather mark
Ogham reversed feather mark
Double low-reversed-9 quotation mark
Tibetan mark gug rtags gyon
Tibetan mark gug rtags gyas
Tibetan mark ang khang gyon
Tibetan mark ang khang gyas
editorial marks
Left substitution bracket
Right substitution bracket
Left dotted substitution bracket
Right dotted substitution bracket
Left transposition bracket
Right transposition bracket
Left raised omission bracket
Right raised omission bracket
Left square bracket with quill
Right square bracket with quill
Left sideways u bracket
Right sideways u bracket
Left double parenthesis
Right double parenthesis
(East-Asian texts)
Left tortoise shell bracket
Right tortoise shell bracket
Left white lenticular bracket
Right white lenticular bracket
Left white tortoise shell bracket
Right white tortoise shell bracket
Left white square bracket
Right white square bracket
Reversed double prime quotation mark
Double prime quotation mark
(halfwidth East-Asian texts)
Left-pointing angle bracket
〈deprecated〉
Right-pointing angle bracket
Halfwidth left corner bracket
Halfwidth right corner bracket
(fullwidth East-Asian texts)
Left angle bracket
Right angle bracket
Left double angle bracket
Right double angle bracket
Left corner bracket
「白八櫨」
Right corner bracket
Left white corner bracket
『カタカナ』
Right white corner bracket
Left black lenticular bracket
【ひらがな】
Right black lenticular bracket
General purpose
(fullwidth East-Asian)
Fullwidth left parenthesis
（Ｗｉｋｉ）
Fullwidth right parenthesis
Fullwidth left square bracket
［ｓｉｃ］
Fullwidth right square bracket
Technical/mathematical
(fullwidth East-Asian)
Fullwidth less-than sign
＜ＨＴＭＬ＞
Fullwidth greater-than sign
Fullwidth left curly bracket
｛１、２｝
Fullwidth right curly bracket
Fullwidth left white parenthesis
Fullwidth right white parenthesis
& and & were tied to the deprecated symbols U+2329 and U+232A in HTML4 and MathML2, but are being migrated to U+27E8 and U+27E9 for HTML5 and MathML3, as defined in .
This is fullwidth version of U+2033 DOUBLE PRIME. In vertical texts, U+301F LOW DOUBLE PRIME QUOTATION MARK is preferred.
Braces (curly brackets) first became part of a character set with the 8-bit code of the .
The angle brackets or chevrons at U+27E8 and U+27E9 are for mathematical use and Western languages, whereas U+3008 and U+3009 are for East Asian languages. The chevrons at U+2329 and U+232A are deprecated in favour of the U+3008 and U+3009 East Asian angle brackets. Unicode discourages their use for mathematics and in Western texts, because they are canonically equivalent to the CJK code points U+300x and thus likely to render as double-width symbols. The less-than and greater-than symbols are often used as replacements for chevrons.
. Microsoft Language Portal - Terminology Collection 2016.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 161. .
Smith, John. The printer’s grammar: containing a concise history of th Also, an examination of the superficies, gradation, and properties of The different sizes of types cas Various Tables of C Models of Letter C Schemes for casting off Copy and I and many other Requisites for attaining a perfect Knowledge both in the Theory and Practice of the Art of Printing. With directions to authors, compilers, &c. How to Prepare Copy, and to Correct their own Proofs. Chiefly collected from SMITH’s edition. To which are added directions for pressmen, &c. The whole calculated for the Service of All who have any Concern in the Letter Press. p. 84.
Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Edition, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 2DP, UK
. Catb.org.
. . 1998. p. 149.  . At .
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, §5.3.2.
Forsmann, F DeJong, Ralf (2004). Detailtypografie [Detail Typography] (in German). Mainz: Herrmann Schmidt. p. 263.  .
. . The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
Fogarty, Mignon. . Quick and Dirty Tips 2011.
Fleishman, C Smith, Anthony (1 June 2016). . Mic 2016.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., The University of Chicago Press, 2003, §6.104
. <. Archived from
on 24 May 2008.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., The University of Chicago Press, 2003, §6.102 and §6.106
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., The University of Chicago Press, 2003, §6.105
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., The University of Chicago Press, 2003, §6.107
Retrieved on 3 May 2009
. riedquat.de. Archived from
on 24 September 2015.
Bauer, Laurie (2007). . The Linguistics Student's Handbook. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 99.
Sampson, Geoffrey (2016). . In Allan, Keith. The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. Routledge. p. 60.
Trask, Robert Lawrence (2000). . The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 22.
M.L. West (1973) Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique (Stuttgart) 81.
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
Dowty, D., Wall, R. and Peters, S.: 1981, Introduction to Montague semantics, Springer.
Scott, D. and Strachey, C.: 1971, Toward a mathematical semantics for computer languages, Oxford University Computing Laboratory, Programming Research Group.
Brian W. Kernaghan, Dennis M. Ritchie. "The C Programming Language", 1988. p. 7.
Bjarne Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language", 2013. p.39.
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
(PDF), The Unicode Standard
Bob, Bemer. .
(1991). But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse. Oxford: Clarendon Press.  .
T et al. (1964). The Graphics of Communication. New York: Holt. States that what are depicted as brackets above are called braces and braces are called brackets. This was the terminology in US printing prior to computers.
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