📖 P — The English dictionary · page 8

parentage — Everyday, meaning 1: Your parentage is who your parents are.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It can also mean the family or country your parents come from, your origin.↗ Example: The orphan in the story did not know his parentage.↗ · She is of Irish and Jamaican parentage.↗ · The puppy's parentage was written on its papers.↗ · The prince's true parentage was a secret.↗ · Scientists checked the parentage of the new apple tree.↗ · Nobody should be judged by their parentage.↗ · But some of those who remembered Brah’s parentage thought that as Bran herself had come from the Shi so this fawn might have come out of the Shi also.↗

parental — Everyday, meaning 1: Parental means of or about parents, or from a parent.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Parental care is the way animal or human parents look after their young.↗ Example: You need parental permission for the trip.↗ · The tablet has parental controls.↗ · This film is rated PG: parental guidance.↗ · Emperor penguins show strong parental care.↗ · Dad took parental leave when the baby was born.↗ · Parental consent is needed to join the club.↗ · Parental love is very strong.↗ · Fill in the parental form.↗ · And now, together with my parental blessing, I bequeath to you this doll.↗

parenthesis — Everyday, meaning 1: (punctuation) A word, phrase or sentence put into another sentence as extra information, marked by brackets, commas or dashes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (US) One of the round brackets ( ).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (maths) Round brackets that show which part of a calculation to do first.↗ Example: My cat, who is very lazy, sleeps all day — this is parenthesis with commas.↗ · Put extra information in parentheses (like this).↗ · In maths, work out the parentheses first: (3 + 4) × 2 = 14.↗ · Use dashes for parenthesis — they make it stand out.↗ · The teacher asked us to add a parenthesis to our sentence.↗ · In the US, ( ) are called parentheses; in the UK they are usually «brackets».↗

paring — Everyday, meaning 1: A paring is a thin strip peeled or cut off the skin of a fruit or vegetable.↗ Example: The pig ate the potato parings from the trough.↗ · Save the apple parings for the compost.↗ · She swept up the cabbage parings from the floor.↗

parish — Everyday, meaning 1: (church) A parish is an area that has its own church and priest or vicar, and the people who live there.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (UK, local government) A parish is a small area, often a village, with its own local council called a parish council.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (church) The parish can mean all the people who belong to a church.↗ Example: Our parish church is the oldest building in the village.↗ · The parish priest visits people who are ill.↗ · The parish hall is used for Brownies and toddler groups.↗ · The whole parish came to the summer fête.↗ · The parish council voted to build a new playground.↗ · Old parish registers help us find out about our ancestors.↗ · He went first to the priest, and asked him about the children in his parish.↗

parishioner — Everyday, meaning 1: (church) A parishioner is a person who lives in a parish or belongs to its church.↗ Example: The priest greeted every parishioner at the door.↗ · Parishioners decorated the church for the harvest festival.↗ · Many parishioners came to the carol service.↗ · Mrs O'Brien is a parishioner who arranges the flowers.↗ · The vicar visits sick parishioners at home.↗ · Parishioners raised money to fix the church roof.↗

parisian — Everyday, meaning 1: adjective.↗ e.g. From or connected with Paris, the capital city of France.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: noun.↗ e.g. A person who lives in Paris or comes from there.↗ Example: She bought a book in a little Parisian shop.↗ · Many Parisians ride the Metro to work.↗ · The Parisian café sold warm croissants.↗ · Our French teacher grew up as a Parisian.↗ · The Eiffel Tower is the most famous Parisian landmark.↗ · The film is set in a Parisian flat.↗

parity — Everyday, meaning 1: Being equal, especially in pay, rank, strength or chances: men and women should have parity of pay.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (maths) Whether a whole number is even or odd: 6 and 8 have the same parity; 6 and 7 have different parity.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (formal, money) When two currencies are worth the same, as in «the pound and the euro reached parity».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (computers) A simple check bit that helps find mistakes in data.↗ Example: Seven and nine have the same parity, because both are odd.↗ · Check the parity: is 128 even or odd?↗ · Odd plus odd gives an even number, so the parity changes.↗ · The players asked for parity with the men's team in pay.↗ · After the goal, the two teams were back at parity.↗ · The dollar and the other money were almost at parity.↗ · Use parity to decide whether 15 coins can be split into two equal piles.↗ · Our computer uses a parity bit to spot errors.↗

park — Everyday, meaning 1: A park is a public green place with grass and trees where people play, walk and relax.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A national park is a large wild area kept safe for nature.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To park is to stop a car or bike and leave it in a place.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A theme park or water park is a place with rides.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: A park can also be a large enclosed piece of land where animals are kept.↗ Example: There are 32 trees in the park.↗ · The workers will plant 15 more trees.↗ · Danny found 18 caps at the park.↗ · How many trees will the park have?↗ · We had a picnic in the park.↗ · Dad parked the car near the school.↗ · Yellowstone is a famous national park.↗ · The car park was full.↗ · We rode the roller coaster at the theme park.↗ · Keep the park clean: put rubbish in the bin.↗ · He returned for the cattle, and he put them into the park.↗ · Thy shoots are a park of pomegranates, with precious fruits; henna with spikenard plants, (Writings SNG.4.13, JPS 1917)↗ · I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; (Writings ECC.2.5, JPS 1917)↗

parkland — Everyday, meaning 1: Parkland is open land with grass and trees, used as a park.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Parkland is grassy land with scattered trees around a big country house.↗ Example: The school is next to an area of parkland.↗ · Deer graze in the parkland near the castle.↗ · The city has lots of parkland for walking.↗ · We had a picnic in the parkland.↗ · The new houses will be built on old parkland.↗ · Adelaide is ringed by parklands.↗ · Keep dogs on a lead in the parkland.↗ · The parkland covers 20 hectares.↗

parliament — Everyday, meaning 1: A parliament is a group of people elected to make the laws of a country.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Parliament is the building where they meet.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A parliament of owls is a name for a group of owls.↗ Example: Parliament makes the laws of the country.↗ · Our class visited Parliament in Canberra.↗ · The new law passed through Parliament.↗ · She wants to be a Member of Parliament.↗ · Our school parliament voted for a new playground.↗ · A parliament of owls sat in the barn.↗ · The Houses of Parliament are next to Big Ben.↗ · Each area elects people to parliament.↗ · He speaks in the Parliament, not for the benefit of the country, but only for himself.↗

parliamentary — Everyday, meaning 1: To do with a parliament: parliamentary elections, a parliamentary debate.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Done by a parliament or having a parliament: a parliamentary democracy.↗ Example: The UK is a parliamentary democracy.↗ · There will be a parliamentary election next year.↗ · Our school council copied parliamentary rules for debates.↗ · She won the parliamentary seat by 200 votes.↗ · Canada has a parliamentary system and a king as head of state.↗ · The bill had to pass a parliamentary vote.↗ · He was something of a politician, and had always taken a prominent part in the local elections, so he knew the proper Parliamentary expressions to use.↗

parlor — Everyday, meaning 1: A parlor is an old word for a sitting room in a house where guests were received.↗ It is the American spelling of «parlour».↗ Example: The cat sat in the parlor by the fire.↗ · «What is the news?» asked the parlor-cat.↗ · The guests waited in the parlor.↗

parlour — Everyday, meaning 1: (old) A sitting room in a house kept for receiving visitors or for the family to relax in.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A shop or business giving a certain service: an ice-cream parlour, a beauty parlour, a funeral parlour.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (farming) A milking parlour is the building where cows are milked.↗ Example: We had sundaes at the ice-cream parlour.↗ · Grandma's parlour had a piano and lace curtains.↗ · The cows walk into the milking parlour twice a day.↗ · We played parlour games at the Christmas party.↗ · The visitors were shown into the parlour.↗ · The funeral parlour was quiet and calm.↗ · Then they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round their father’s neck.↗

parody — Everyday, meaning 1: A parody is a funny copy of a song, story, film or style that exaggerates it to make people laugh or to make fun of it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To parody something means to copy it in a funny exaggerated way.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A parody of something is a very bad, unfair version of it, as in "a parody of justice".↗ Example: We wrote a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" about homework.↗ · The comedy show did a parody of the news.↗ · That account is a parody; it isn't really the president.↗ · The film parodies old spy movies.↗ · The trial was a parody of justice.↗ · His parody of the teacher's walk made everyone laugh.↗ · Parody is funny when it is clever, not cruel.↗

paroxysm — Everyday, meaning 1: A sudden, strong burst of a feeling or action that you cannot control: «a paroxysm of laughter», «a paroxysm of rage».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (medicine) A sudden attack or worsening of an illness, such as a fit of coughing.↗ Example: The children fell into paroxysms of laughter.↗ · Toad flew into a paroxysm of rage.↗ · A paroxysm of coughing shook the old man.↗ · She was seized by a paroxysm of fear.↗ · The joke sent the class into paroxysms.↗ · Whooping cough brings paroxysms of coughing.↗

parr — Everyday, meaning 1: A parr is a young salmon or trout in its first year or two of life in a river, before it swims to the sea.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It has dark marks on its sides called parr marks that help it hide.↗ Example: A parr is a young salmon living in the river.↗ · The parr have dark stripes on their sides.↗ · In the life cycle, the fry grows into a parr.↗ · We counted twenty parr in the stream.↗ · The parr will turn into a smolt before going to sea.↗ · Kingfishers sometimes catch parr.↗

parrot — Everyday, meaning 1: A parrot is a bird with bright colours and a curved beak.↗ Some parrots can copy words and sounds.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To parrot is to repeat someone's words without understanding them.↗ Example: The pet shop has 6 parrots.↗ · A parrot costs 50 dollars.↗ · How many legs do 4 parrots have?↗ · The zoo has 3 cages with 5 parrots each.↗ · The parrot said «Hello!» when we came in.↗ · The pirate had a green parrot on his shoulder.↗ · Parrots crack nuts with their strong beaks.↗ · Learning facts parrot fashion does not help you understand them.↗ · "Give me my parrot!" cried Punchkin.↗

parrotfish — Everyday, meaning 1: A parrotfish is a brightly coloured fish of coral reefs with teeth joined into a beak like a parrot's.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It scrapes and bites coral to eat the algae on it.↗ Example: The parrotfish crunched on the coral.↗ · Parrotfish make white sand on tropical beaches.↗ · We saw a blue and green parrotfish when snorkelling.↗ · A parrotfish sleeps in a slimy bubble.↗ · Its mouth looks like a parrot's beak.↗ · Parrotfish help keep the reef clean.↗

parsec — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) A unit for measuring huge distances in space, equal to about 3.26 light years, or about 31 million million kilometres.↗ Example: A parsec is about 3.26 light years.↗ · The nearest star is a little over one parsec away.↗ · Astronomers measure the distance to galaxies in millions of parsecs.↗ · In Star Wars, Han Solo boasts about doing the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs.↗ · A parsec is a measure of distance, not time.↗ · The galaxy is about 30,000 parsecs across.↗

parsee — Everyday, meaning 1: A member of a community of Zoroastrians in India and Pakistan whose families came from Persia (Iran) more than a thousand years ago.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In the Just So Story «How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin», the Parsee is a man on an island in the Red Sea whose cake the Rhinoceros eats; to get even, the Parsee rubs cake-crumbs into the Rhinoceros's skin, which makes it itch so he rubs it into folds.↗ Example: The Parsee baked a cake that was two feet across and three feet thick.↗ · The Rhinoceros ate the Parsee's cake and went away.↗ · The Parsee filled the Rhinoceros's skin with cake-crumbs.↗ · Many Parsis live in the city of Mumbai in India.↗ · Parsis follow the Zoroastrian religion.↗ · The Parsee sang a little song as he climbed down from his palm tree.↗ · Real rhinos have folded skin, but not because of cake crumbs.↗