comments

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of comment.

   The article drew hundreds of comments within an hour of publication.

   Several comments at the meeting questioned the budget proposal.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of comment. These include remarks made aloud or in writing, and the notes programmers embed in source code for human readers, which the compiler ignores. When comment means the act of commenting, it is uncountable and has no plural. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so she comments and the comments look identical.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of comment.

   The critic comments at length on the film's uneven pacing.

   Whenever the subject arises, she comments with characteristic bluntness.

   Note

   Two constructions sit behind the -s form. Used intransitively, it takes on: the critic comments on the pacing. Used transitively, it reports the remark itself: she comments that the plan is late. Programmers add their own uses. Someone comments code by annotating it, or comments out a line to disable it. The older transitive use, commenting a text directly, is now obsolete.

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