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( )

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, volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim

     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, volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim

     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.

For quotations of use of 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=18

   20/(2+8)=2

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

   (54,24)=6

3. (mathematics) denote 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 of use of this term, see Citations:( ).

• (mathematical precedence) { }, [ ]

• ((( )))

( )

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

   黿（yuán）

   黿 (read as yuán)

2. (neologism, Internet slang) Used to provide a deeper or second meaning to a phrase. Compare English read (“used after a euphemism to introduce the intended, more blunt meaning of a term”).

   那個男（shuai）人（ge）

   that man (read: hunk)

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

( )

1. Used as a plaintext fallback of ruby: encloses the pronunciation to kanji the reader may not necessarily know how to read.

   檸檬（れもん）