paragraph

See also: Paragraph

English

Etymology

From Middle English paragraf, from Middle French paragraphe from Latin paragraphus (“sign for start of a new section of discourse”), from Ancient Greek παράγραφος (parágraphos), from παρά (pará, “beside”) and γράφω (gráphō, “I write”). Doublet of paragraphos.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹəɡɹɑːf/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/, /ˈpɛɹəɡɹæf/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (Mary–marry–merry distinction)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Hyphenation: par‧a‧graph

Noun

paragraph (plural paragraphs)

1. A passage in text that starts on a new line, the first line sometimes being indented, and usually marks a change of topic.

   opening paragraph

   final paragraph

   paragraph heading

   Divide the writing into paragraphs.

2. (originally) A mark or note set in the margin to call attention to something in the text, such as a change of subject.
3. A brief article, notice, or announcement, as in a newspaper.
4. (computing) An offset of 16 bytes in Intel memory architectures.

Derived terms

• hanging paragraph
• paragraph break
• paragraph mark
• sub-paragraph

 

Translations

passage in text

• Afan Oromo: keeyyata
• Afrikaans: paragraaf, alinea
• Albanian: paragraf (sq) m
• Arabic: فِقْرَة f (fiqra), بَنْد m (band) (legal)
• Armenian: պարբերություն (hy) (parberutʻyun)
• Assamese: দফা (dopha)
• Asturian: párrafu m
• Azerbaijani: abzas (az), paraqraf
• Belarusian: пара́граф m (paráhraf), абза́ц m (abzác)
• Bengali: অনুচ্ছেদ (bn) (onucched)
• Bulgarian: парагра́ф (bg) m (paragráf)
• Burmese: အပိုဒ် (my) (a.puid), ပိုဒ် (my) (puid)
• Catalan: paràgraf (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 段落 (dyun⁶ lok⁶)

  Mandarin: 段 (zh) (duàn), 段落 (zh) (duànluò), 自然段 (zìránduàn)

• Czech: odstavec (cs) m
• Danish: paragraf c, afsnit (da) n
• Dutch: alinea (nl) f, paragraaf (nl) m
• Esperanto: alineo (eo), paragrafo
• Estonian: paragrahv (et), lõik (et)
• Finnish: kappale (fi), paragraafi
• French: paragraphe (fr) m, alinéa (fr) m
• Galician: parágrafo (gl) m
• Georgian: აბზაცი (ka) (abzaci), პარაგრაფი (ka) (ṗaragrapi)
• German: Absatz (de) m, Paragraph (de) m (legal)
• Greek: παράγραφος (el) f (parágrafos)
• Hebrew: פִּיסְקָה \ פִּסְקָה (he) f (piská)
• Hindi: अनुच्छेद (hi) m (anucched), पैराग्राफ़ m (pairāgrāf)
• Hungarian: bekezdés (hu)
• Icelandic: málsgrein (is) f
• Ido: paragrafo (io)
• Indonesian: paragraf (id), alinea (id)
• Interlingua: paragrapho
• Irish: paragraf m, alt m, mír f
• Italian: paragrafo (it) m
• Japanese: 段落 (ja) (だんらく, danraku)
• Kazakh: абзац (abzas), азат жол (azat jol), параграф (paragraf)
• Khmer: វគ្គ (km) (vĕək),​ វោត (km) (voot)​ (rare)
• Korean: 단락(段落) (ko) (dallak)
• Kyrgyz: абзац (ky) (abzats), параграф (paragraf)
• Lao: ວັກ (wak), ປະລິເສດ (pa li sēt), ປະຣິເສດ (pa ri sēt)
• Latin: paragraphus m or f
• Latvian: rindkopa f, paragrāfs m
• Lithuanian: paragrafas m
• Macedonian: став m (stav), ставка f (stavka)
• Malay: perenggan (ms), paragraf
• Maori: whiti
• Middle English: paraf
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: догол мөр (dogol mör)

  Mongolian: ᠳᠣᠭᠤᠯ
  ᠮᠥᠷ (doɣul mör)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avsnitt (no) n

  Nynorsk: avsnitt n

• Ottoman Turkish: فقره (fıkra)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: پاراگْراف (fa) (pârâgrâf), بَنْد (fa) (band)

• Polish: akapit (pl) m
• Portuguese: parágrafo (pt) m
• Romanian: paragraf (ro) n
• Russian: абза́ц (ru) m (abzác), пара́граф (ru) m (parágraf)
• Sanskrit: अनुच्छेद (sa) m (anuccheda)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: па̏сус m, пара̀граф m

  Roman: pȁsus (sh) m, paràgraf (sh) m

• Slovak: odsek m, odstavec m
• Slovene: odstavek m
• Spanish: párrafo (es) m
• Swedish: stycke (sv) n, avsnitt (sv) n (grammatical); paragraf (sv) c (law)
• Tagalog: talataan
• Tajik: параграф (paragraf), абзас (abzas), банд (band)
• Thai: อนุเฉท (à-nú-chèet), ย่อหน้า (th) (yɔ̂ɔ-nâa)
• Turkish: paragraf (tr), fıkra (tr) (law)
• Turkmen: abzas (tk), paragraf
• Ukrainian: пара́граф m (paráhraf), абза́ц (uk) m (abzác)
• Urdu: پَیراگْراف m (pairāgrāf), پَیراگِراف m (pairāgirāf)
• Uyghur: پاراگراف (paragraf), ئابزاس (abzas)
• Uzbek: paragraf (uz), xatboshi (uz), abzats (uz)
• Vietnamese: đoạn (vi) (段)
• Volapük: bagaf (vo)
• West Frisian: alinea

Verb

paragraph (third-person singular simple present paragraphs, present participle paragraphing, simple past and past participle paragraphed)

1. To sort text into paragraphs.
2. To publish a brief article, notice, or announcement, as in a newspaper.

Translations

sort text into paragraphs

• Galician: paragrafar (gl)
• Greek: παραγραφοποιώ (paragrafopoió)
• Italian: paragrafare
• Swedish: styckindela

See also

• ¶