# What do brackets mean in a sentence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607 "2009-02-27T03:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/21 "2009-02-27T16:56:10Z")
I liked the notice on the college noticeboard that read “Ethics 101: No lecture today as Professor Higgins is il”… later amended to “Ethics 101: No lecture today as Professor Higgins is il (_sic)_” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/22 "2009-02-27T17:05:07Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’ve never liked that idea. If it’s in common usage, it shouldn’t need to be italicized. Schadenfreude is the default English term for schadenfreude; why should it be italicized? > > We don’t italicize tandoori or wigwam or kamikaze or hoi polloi… The debate over which foreign words have become part of English and no longer need to be italicized has been going on forever and will never end. The difference with sic and ibid. and et al. and the others is that they are almost solely used in formal contexts and so formal style is preferred. You don’t have to italicize sic here on the Dope. I doubt even the pedants would really care. If you’re doing a formal bibliography, however, then you need to conform to the style rules, whether MLA or Chicago or a specialized legal style or whatever. And if you don’t whoever puts it into print will, cursing you out all the way because of the extra work you created. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/23 "2009-02-27T17:18:26Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > FWIW, the round ones are commonly called “brackets” in the UK. So what are the square ones called in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/24 "2009-02-27T17:19:57Z")
> [@Qwisp](#): > > So what are the square ones called in the UK? Nerds? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/25 "2009-02-27T17:23:44Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > **Leaffan** : I think you’re confusing brackets with parentheses. As pointed out by Really Not All That Bright, we don’t distinguish those terms in the same way on this side of the Atlantic. The signs “(,)” are called brackets, and the material contained within them is said to be in parenthesis, or parenthetical. The signs “[,]” are called square brackets. I had no idea before reading this thread that my use of the word brackets would be considered wrong or confusing in America. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/26 "2009-02-27T17:24:46Z")
> [@Qwisp](#): > > So what are the square ones called in the UK? “Square brackets”. Duh. And {these} are “curly brackets”. A few people, however, know parentheses from brackets from braces. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/27 "2009-02-27T20:32:41Z")
I’ve seem () parentheses, brackets, {} braces. Also square brackets, as opposed to \<\> angle brackets. (Besides HTML coding and their function signifying greater/less than, I’m not sure what if any use angle brackets are.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/28 "2009-02-27T20:35:31Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I’ve seem () parentheses, brackets, {} braces. Also square brackets, as opposed to \<\> angle brackets. (Besides HTML coding and their function signifying greater/less than, I’m not sure what if any use angle brackets are.) \ Denoting that you are posting in somebody else’s style, of course! \ ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/29 "2009-02-27T21:11:45Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > \ Denoting that you are posting in somebody else’s style, of course! \ But: {orthodontist} They’ll straighten your teeth – really! {/orthodontist} 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/30 "2009-02-27T22:07:54Z")
In this particular instance, don’t they just indicate an optional part of the sentence? - I [object to] Pit Rule #5 I Pit Rule #5 ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/31 "2009-02-27T23:37:10Z")
I believe in the original thread it was denoted that the thread title had been changed to make it more descriptive. This would make sense if it was an editors (i.e Mod) comment. **Polycarp** The only time I have used angle brackets (other than HTML) has been as the less than(\<) or more than (\>) symbol. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/32 "2009-02-28T00:05:21Z")
[Wikipedia on angle brackets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket#Angle_brackets.2C_diamond_brackets_or_chevrons_.E2.8C.A9.C2.A0.E2.8C.AA). > [@](#): > > Angle brackets, diamond brackets or chevrons 〈 〉 > Angle brackets (⟨ ⟩[10]; Unicode U+27E8 and U+27E9; and others, see below) are often used to enclose highlighted material. Some dictionaries use angle brackets to enclose short excerpts illustrating the usage of words. In physical sciences, angle brackets are used to denote an average over time or another continuous parameter. For example, > > In linguistics, angle brackets indicate orthography, as in “The English word /kæt/ is spelled ⟨cat⟩.” > > In textual criticism, and hence in many editions of poorly transmitted works, angle brackets denote sections of the text which are illegible or otherwise lost; the editor will often insert his own reconstruction where possible within them. > > Angle brackets are infrequently used to denote dialogue that is thought instead of spoken, such as: > > ⟨What a beautiful flower!⟩ > Single and double angle brackets or pairs of comparison operators (\<\<, \>\>) are sometimes used instead of guillemets («, ») (used as quotation marks in many languages) when the proper glyphs are not available. > > The mathematical or logical symbols for greater-than (\>) and less-than (\<) are inequality operators, and are not punctuation marks when so used. Nevertheless, since true angle brackets are not available on a typical computer keyboard, the “less than” and “greater than” symbols are often used instead. These are often loosely referred to as angle brackets when used in this way. For example, the symbols \< and \> are often used to set apart URLs in text, such as “I found it on [Example.com](http://Example.com) \<[http://www.example.com/>”](http://www.example.com/>%E2%80%9D). It may also often be found to indicate an e-mail address, such as “This photo is copyrighted by John Smith \”, and is the computer-readable form for such in message headers as specified by RFC 2822. Furthermore, right-angle brackets are used in nested Usenet quoting and various e-mail formats, and as such are standard quotation mark glyphs. > > Chevrons are part of standard Chinese, and Korean punctuation, where they generally enclose the titles of books: ︿ and ﹀ or ︽ and ︾ for traditional vertical printing, and 〈 and 〉 or 《 and 》 for horizontal printing. > > In comic books, angle brackets are often used to mark dialogue that has been translated notionally from another language; 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 angle brackets. Of course, since no foreign language is actually written, this is only notionally translated.[citation needed] > > Angle brackets can also be used to indicate an action or status (eg. \ or \), particularly in online, real-time text-based discussions (instant messaging, bulletin boards, etc). (Here, asterisks can also be used to signify an action.) > > In the cartesian coordinate system brackets are used to specify the coordinates of a point: (2,3) denotes the point with x-coordinate 2 and y-coordinate 3. > > The inner product of two vectors is commonly written as , but the notation (a, b) is also used. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/33 "2009-02-28T00:23:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > In this particular instance, don’t they just indicate an optional part of the sentence? - > > I [object to] Pit Rule #5 > > I Pit Rule #5 I don’t think so. It was originally posted in the pit and presumably (I didn’t see the original title) it said “I Pit Rule #5”. When it was moved to ATMB it’s title was also changed thus “I Object to Pit Rule #5”. Note that although the word “Pit” remains, its meaning has changed. The square brackets just indicate what was added by the Mod. That’s how I’ve interpreted the whole thing anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/34 "2009-02-28T00:34:35Z")
Thankfully I’m not losing it. From that ever trusted [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket) source: > [@](#): > > 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 whereas in modern British usage it is usually the parenthesis (round bracket). Another instance where we in Canada side with the British. We are a mongrel lot, we are (eh?). ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/35 "2009-02-28T03:06:39Z")
I’ve seen angle brackets used to distinguish points from vectors in some calculus texts. The one written by Jimmy Stewart comes to mind. A vector, v = \<1, 2, 3\>. A point, p = (1, 2, 3). ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/36 "2009-02-28T04:36:00Z")
Square brackets are also used in mathematics for parentheses inside parentheses, like x[x²(x-1)]. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/37 "2009-02-28T06:37:54Z")
When I was a kid, me and my friend would play for hours coding in Basic on his Commodore 64, by replicating some code from computer magazines. We didn’t know what the angle brackets were called at the time, so we always referred to them as _Pointer Sisters._ \<\> I still call them that in my head. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/38 "2009-02-28T15:19:26Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > A vector, v = \<1, 2, 3\>. > A point, p = (1, 2, 3). Great, now I’ll have those words stuck in my head to a cha-cha beat all day. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607/39 "2009-03-03T02:48:43Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > I’ve only ever seen [“sic”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic) in square brackets. > [@Giles](#): > > I wouldn’t say “only”, but that’s by far the commonest, and it makes sense, because “sic” is an addition to quoted text. > [@Q.E.D](#): > > Ditto. I don’t specifically recall seeing in in parentheses, but it wouldn’t surprised me. However, brackets are what I usually see. I guess it’s been too long since I’ve read anything scholarly. My bad! :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-brackets-mean-in-a-sentence/487607.md?page=1)