parallelism

[ par-uh-le-liz-uhm, -luh-liz- ]

noun

1. the position or relation of parallels.
2. agreement in direction, tendency, or character; the state or condition of being parallel.
3. a parallel or comparison.
4. Metaphysics. the doctrine that mental and bodily processes are concomitant, each varying with variation of the other, but that there is no causal relation of interaction between the two.

parallelism

/ ˈpærəlɛˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. the state of being parallel
2. grammar the repetition of a syntactic construction in successive sentences for rhetorical effect
3. philosophy the dualistic doctrine that mental and physical processes are regularly correlated but are not causally connected, so that, for example, pain always accompanies, but is not caused by, a pin-prick Compare interactionism occasionalism

Derived Forms

• ˈparalˌlelist, nounadjective

Other Words From

• non·paral·lelism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of parallelism¹

First recorded in 1600–10; parallel + -ism

Example Sentences

I now remember that afternoon, punctuated by thunder and lightning, when I began to cry from the rain and invaded the atmosphere of darkness like a crude parallelism of my life.

From Washington Blade

“The parallelism is where the magic happens,” said Giesbrecht.

From Quanta Magazine

Now, two different teams of researchers have figured out ways of performing calculations with light in a way that both merges memory and calculations and allows for massive parallelism.

From Ars Technica

In order to reach the star at lower culmination the finder tube had to be thrown out of parallelism with the main telescope.

From Project Gutenberg

The expression for a sin-offering is distinct ( ), and the parallelism with in the next clause forbids that reference here.

From Project Gutenberg

Is this apparent parallelism mere chance, or is it due to a certain amount of similarity in conditions?

From Project Gutenberg

A very distinct parallelism is seen between the nature worship rites and phallic rites.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a very striking parallelism between these two rites.

From Project Gutenberg