<B>paragraph, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a group of sentences that belong together; distinct part of a chapter, letter, or composition. A paragraph usually has some unifying elements, such as meaning or subject, that are not shared with the sentences that come before or follow. Paragraphs usually begin on a new line which is indented, except in some business letters. <DD><B> 2. </B>a separate note or item of news in a newspaper. <BR> <I>Ex. She had been irritated by newspaper paragraphs--nobody could ever find out who wrote them (H. G. Wells).</I> <DD><B> 3a. </B>a sign used to show where a paragraph begins or should begin, used mostly in correcting written or printed work. <DD><B> b. </B>such a sign used to indicate a note or footnote. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to divide into paragraphs. <BR> <I>Ex. to paragraph an essay.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to write paragraphs about. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to write paragraphs. </DL>
<A NAME="paragrapher">
<B>paragrapher, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who writes paragraphs, as for a newspaper. <BR> <I>Ex. A gossip paragrapher in the evening newspaper said darkly that the situation had become "intolerable" (Maclean's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="paragraphia">
<B>paragraphia, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the writing of words and letters other than those intended, an aphasia associated with certain disorders caused by injury to the brain. </DL>
<A NAME="paragraphic">
<B>paragraphic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of, having to do with, or divided into paragraphs; forming a paragraph. <DD><B> 2. </B>of or having to do with paragraphia. </DL>
<B>paragraph loop,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a loop in figure skating in which a series of turns are introduced at various points of the circle. </DL>
<A NAME="paraguayan">
<B>Paraguayan, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with Paraguay, a country in central South America, or its inhabitants. <DD><I>noun </I> a native or inhabitant of Paraguay. </DL>
<A NAME="paraguayancat">
<B>Paraguayan cat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a South American domestic cat smaller than most domestic cats that has been bred for over 300 years. </DL>
<A NAME="paraguaytea">
Paraguay tea, =mate.</DL>
<A NAME="parahydrogen">
<B>para-hydrogen, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a form of hydrogen consisting of molecules whose pairs of nuclei have spins in opposite directions. </DL>
<A NAME="parainfluenza">
<B>parainfluenza, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a respiratory illness similar to influenza, caused by any of various viruses that are associated with the common cold and various other respiratory diseases. </DL>
<A NAME="parajournalism">
<B>parajournalism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> newspaper and magazine writing that avoids the methods and practices of standard journalism; unconventional journalism. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the current fad for first person parajournalism, where the reporter--me, say--looks into his own heart for information about politics, war, or suffering, and tells what he finds there in long loping sentences all stuffed with literary allusion (Herbert Gold).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="parajournalist">
<B>parajournalist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a practitioner of parajournalism. <BR> <I>Ex. Also working for the parajournalist is the tendency of the misinformed ... to accept as truth whatever is boldly asserted as such (Dwight Macdonald).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="parajournalistic">
<B>parajournalistic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with parajournalism or parajournalists. </DL>
<A NAME="parakeet">
<B>parakeet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various small, brightly colored parrots, most of which have slender bodies and long tails. Also, <B>paraquet,</B> <B>paroquet,</B> <B>parrakeet,</B> <B>parroket,</B> <B>parroquet.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="parakeratosis">
<B>parakeratosis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a relatively mild disease of pigs, marked by dry, scaly, crusted skin. </DL>
<A NAME="parakite">
<B>parakite, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a number of kites connected in series and flying tandem, used for sending up meteorological instruments. </DL>
<A NAME="parakiting">
<B>parakiting, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act or sport of soaring in a parachute while being towed by a motorboat, car, or other fast vehicle. <BR> <I>Ex. In parakiting, the water skier becomes airborne when his trailing parachute pops open (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="paralanguage">
<B>paralanguage, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the paralinguistic parts of language. </DL>
<A NAME="paraldehyde">
<B>paraldehyde, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a colorless liquid, obtained by the action of sulfuric acid on ordinary acetaldehyde, used as a hypnotic and sedative and as a solvent, in the manufacture of organic compounds. </DL>
<A NAME="paralegal">
<B>paralegal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with law in an auxiliary capacity. <BR> <I>Ex. Greater use can be made of paralegal aides--nonlawyers who are specially trained to do minutiae that require an inefficiently large amount of an attorney's time (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="paraleipsis">
<B>paraleipsis, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ses.</B> =paralipsis.</DL>
<A NAME="paralepsis">
<B>paralepsis, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ses.</B> =paralipsis.</DL>
<A NAME="paralinguistic">
<B>paralinguistic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with factors connected with but not essentially part of language, such as tone of voice, tempo of speech, gestures, and facial expressions. <BR> <I>Ex. Wolfram ... rejects the possibility of distinguishing 'careful' and 'casual' speech, as Labov had done, on the grounds that interpretation of paralinguistic cues is open to subjective bias (Language).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="paralinguistics">
<B>paralinguistics, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the study of paralinguistic phenomena. </DL>
<A NAME="paralipomenon">
<B>Paralipomenon, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> either of the books in the Douay Bible known as "Chronicles" in the Protestant Old Testament. </DL>
<A NAME="paralipsis">
<B>paralipsis, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ses.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a rhetorical device by which a speaker or writer emphasizes something by pretending to ignore it. (Examples:) "disregarding his other faults," "not to mention his heroism," "to say nothing of his virtues." </DL>
<A NAME="parallactic">
<B>parallactic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with a parallax. <BR> <I>Ex. parallactic angle.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="parallax">
<B>parallax, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the apparent change in the position of an object when it is seen or photographed from two different points which are not on a direct line with the object. Parallax is used in surveying to determine distances of objects. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Astronomy.) the angle between the straight lines that join a heavenly body to two different points of observation, equal to the difference in the directions in which the body is seen from the two points. See also <B>annual parallax,</B> <B>diurnal parallax.</B> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Photography.) the difference between what the viewfinder shows and what the lens records on a film. <DD><B> 4. </B>an apparent shifting of the cross hairs of a telescope, caused by imperfect focusing. </DL>
