# comment

Pronunciation: say "KOM-ent" /ˈkɒm.ɛnt/

## Noun

1. A spoken or written remark giving an opinion, observation or reaction; also such remarks in general (no comment; open for public comment).
   - Simple: Something you say or write to give your opinion or reaction.
   - _Her comment during the meeting sparked a long debate._
   - _The teacher wrote a brief comment in the margin of the essay._
3. A remark embedded in source code that the compiler or interpreter ignores, written to help people understand the code.
   - Simple: A note in computer code that the computer ignores, written to help people understand the code.
   - _A well-placed comment can save the next developer hours of confusion._
   - _He removed an outdated comment that no longer matched the code._
6. A fact or circumstance that reveals the true character of something by implication, usually in a way that reflects badly on it.
   - Simple: A fact or event that shows what something is truly like without anyone saying it, usually in a bad way.
   - _That the town's newest building is a parking garage is a telling comment on its priorities._
   - _Nurses needing second jobs to pay the rent is a damning comment on the state of health care._

## Verb

2. To make remarks or give an opinion about something, or to say something as a remark; in older use, to explain or discuss a text directly.
   - Simple: To say or write what you think about something.
   - _Officials declined to comment on the ongoing investigation._
   - _Critics commented extensively on the film's slow pacing._
4. To disable a section of source code by converting it into a comment so it no longer runs.
   - Simple: To turn a part of computer code into a note so that it stops running.
   - _Developers often comment out debugging statements before a release._
   - _He commented out the entire block to isolate the bug._
5. To add explanatory remarks into source code.
   - Simple: To add notes into computer code to explain how it works.
   - _Good developers comment their code thoroughly._
   - _He commented the entire module before the review._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The part of a sentence that supplies new information about the current theme.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3, 6** — Classical Latin commentum meant "invention, fabrication," but in Late Latin it came to mean "comment, interpretation." It passed into Old French as coment ("commentary") and then into Middle English as comment.
**Meanings 2, 4–5** — Latin commentārī had the senses "to consider thoroughly," "think over," "discuss," and "write upon," and it gave Middle English commenten.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/comment (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).