Definition of "parenthetical" [parenthetical]

• Set off within or as if within parentheses; qualifying or explanatory: a parenthetical remark. (adjective)
• Using or containing parentheses. (adjective)
• A parenthetical word, phrase, or remark. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Churchill believed you could do what he called parenthetical praise; that later on, you could say, ` And, by the way, I've spoken to many audiences."
• "A correspondent from Armenia writes to ask about the origins of you know as a parenthetical conversational 'filler'."
• "But then the writer, who is really amusing himself by now, is all excited that he got to use the fifty-cent word "parenthetical" within a parenthetical, which is almost as good as having an intalicized footnote."