paragraph

Pluralparagraphs

Formsparagraphs, paragraphing, paragraphed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A passage of text that begins on a new line, sometimes with the first line indented, usually marking a change of topic.

   The opening paragraph sets out the writer's main argument.

   He reorganized the chapter into shorter paragraphs for easier reading.

   Similarpassage, section

   Note

   The passage took its name from a mark, not the other way round. Latin paragraphus was the sign for the start of a new section, from Greek para "beside" and graphō "I write": something written beside the text. That sign survives as the marginal mark, and the stretch of prose it introduced inherited the name. Position is the natural way to describe one: the opening paragraph, the final paragraph, a paragraph heading.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To divide a piece of writing into paragraphs, grouping the text by topic.

   Good writers paragraph their arguments to guide the reader through each point.

   She paragraphed the transcript so that each speaker began a new block.

   Similardivide, structure, organize, section

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A brief article, notice, or announcement, such as one printed in a newspaper.

   A small paragraph in the evening edition reported the council's decision.

   He found the engagement notice tucked into a paragraph near the back pages.

   Similaritem, notice, piece, snippet

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To publish a brief article, notice, or announcement about something, as in a newspaper.

   The gossip columnist paragraphed every celebrity sighting she could confirm.

   Country newspapers would paragraph any visitor of note who passed through town.

   Similarreport, mention, note, cover, announce

   Note

   Journalism's verb for giving something a brief mention in print: to paragraph a visitor or a sighting is to turn it into a short newspaper item. Its direct object is the person or event being noticed, not the text being written. That is the easiest way to tell it from the verb of dividing writing, whose object is always the prose itself.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A marginal annotation or symbol highlighting something in the text, such as the start of a new topic.

   The scribe added a paragraph in the margin wherever the argument turned.

   A red paragraph in the margin guided readers to the next topic.

   Similarpilcrow

   Note

   The earlier meaning, and the one closest to the word's parts: something written beside the text rather than the text itself. It lives on in the pilcrow (¶), the typographic sign that once flagged such breaks. Because mark and passage share a name, context sorts them out. A paragraph in the margin is this sense, and a paragraph on the page is the block of prose.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   An offset of 16 bytes, used as a unit in Intel memory architectures.

   A memory segment in this architecture always begins on a paragraph boundary.

   The loader rounded each block up to the next paragraph, wasting a few bytes.

   Note

   Programmers on Intel's x86 segmented architectures counted memory in these 16-byte steps. A segment value is shifted left by four bits, which multiplies it by 16, to find where that segment begins in physical memory. That is why every segment starts on a paragraph boundary. Unlike the block of prose, this paragraph is always the same size.

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