Library / English Dictionary

PARAGRAPH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

One of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("paragraph" is a kind of...):

piece of writing; writing; written material (the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect))

Holonyms ("paragraph" is a part of...):

text; textual matter (the words of something written)

Derivation:

paragraph (write paragraphs; work as a paragrapher)

paragraph (write about in a paragraph)

paragraph (divide into paragraphs, as of text)

paragrapher (a writer of paragraphs (as for publication on the editorial page of a newspaper))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Write paragraphs; work as a paragrapher

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "paragraph" is one way to...):

compose; indite; pen; write (produce a literary work)

Domain category:

authorship; composition; penning; writing (the act of creating written works)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

paragraph (one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line)

paragrapher (a writer of paragraphs (as for publication on the editorial page of a newspaper))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Write about in a paragraph

Example:

All her friends were paragraphed in last Monday's paper

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "paragraph" is one way to...):

compose; indite; pen; write (produce a literary work)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

paragraph (one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line)

paragrapher (a writer of paragraphs (as for publication on the editorial page of a newspaper))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Divide into paragraphs, as of text

Example:

This story is well paragraphed

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "paragraph" is one way to...):

carve up; dissever; divide; separate; split; split up (separate into parts or portions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

paragraph (one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted; therefore, as to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that kind; particularly a paragraph about her majesty Queen Anne, of most pious and glorious memory; although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human species.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mr. Peggotty pointed to a certain paragraph in the newspaper, where I read aloud as follows, from the Port Middlebay Times: The public dinner to our distinguished fellow-colonist and townsman, WILKINS MICAWBER, ESQUIRE, Port Middlebay District Magistrate, came off yesterday in the large room of the Hotel, which was crowded to suffocation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

An extinguished candle stood on the table; she was bending over the fire, and seemed reading in a little black book, like a prayer-book, by the light of the blaze: she muttered the words to herself, as most old women do, while she read; she did not desist immediately on my entrance: it appeared she wished to finish a paragraph.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His paragraphs were returned, and though he tried repeatedly he never succeeded in placing one.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Watson, would you have the kindness to take the paper and to read the paragraph in question?”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To be so near happiness, so near fame, so near the long paragraph in praise of the private theatricals at Ecclesford, the seat of the Right Hon.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Have you observed in the paper a short paragraph referring to the remarkable contents of a packet sent through the post to Miss Cushing, of Cross Street, Croydon?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own statement of what had occurred.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jo hardly knew her own MS. again, so crumpled and underscored were its pages and paragraphs, but feeling as a tender parent might on being asked to cut off her baby's legs in order that it might fit into a new cradle, she looked at the marked passages and was surprised to find that all the moral reflections—which she had carefully put in as ballast for much romance—had been stricken out.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Within a few days after this meeting, the newspapers announced to the world, that the lady of Thomas Palmer, Esq. was safely delivered of a son and heir; a very interesting and satisfactory paragraph, at least to all those intimate connections who knew it before.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)