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PlainSpell

parse

/pɑɹs/verb, noun

parse is spelled P-A-R-S-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,649th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, parse means “To resolve (a sentence, etc.) into its elements, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by agreement or…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in parse?

Letters5: P-A-R-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,649th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is parse?

Parse appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,649th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce parse?

  • UK /pɑːz/
  • UK [pʰɑːz]
  • US /pɑɹs/

Parse has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-parse.ogg, En-au-parse.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with parse

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

parse vs pass0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with parse?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as parse from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹs/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: spare, spear, asper, presa, prase.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of parse

  • parses present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • parsing participle, present
  • parsed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does parse mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To resolve (a sentence, etc.) into its elements, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by agreement or government; to analyze and describe grammatically.

  2. 2

    To examine closely; to scrutinize.

  3. 3

    To split (a file or other input) into pieces of data that can be easily manipulated or stored.

  4. 4

    To resolve (a string of code or text) into its elements to determine if it conforms to a particular grammar.

  5. 5

    Of a string of code or text, sentence, etc.: to conform to rules of grammar, to be syntactically valid.

    This sentence doesn't parse.

noun

  1. 1

    An act of parsing; a parsing.

    The parse will fail if the program contains an unrecognised keyword.

  2. 2

    The result of such an act; a parsing.

    This parse is incorrect and indicates a fault in the parser.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Parse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchanalyser, décomposer ((linguistics) to resolve into elements), parser ((computing) to resolve (a string) into its…), séparer ((''computing'') to split data into pieces), analyse (act of parsing)
Germananalysieren ((linguistics) to resolve into elements), zerteilen, parsen ((''computing'') to split data into pieces)
Portugueseanalisar, decompor ((linguistics) to resolve into elements), processar ((''computing'') to split data into pieces)
Spanishanalizar, descomponer, desglosar, diseccionar, disecar ((linguistics) to resolve into elements), parsear ((computing) to resolve (a string) into its…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does parse come from?

Possibly from Middle English pars (“parts, shares; parts of speech, grammar”), from Old French pars (plural of part (“part, portion, share”)), from Latin pars (“part, piece, share”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to carry forth; to sell”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after parse