Bracket
tall punctuation mark typically used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text; opening and closing, or left and right symbols
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their names, that vary between British and American English. Brackets, without further qualification, in British English refers to the (...) marks and in American English the [...] marks.
Other symbols are repurposed as brackets in specialist contexts, such as those used by linguists.
Brackets are typically deployed in symmetric pairs, and an individual bracket may be identified as a left or right bracket or, alternatively, an opening or closing bracket, respectively, depending on the directionality of the context.
In casual writing and in some technical fields, such as computing and linguistic analysis, of grammar, brackets nest, with segments of bracketed material containing embedded within them other further bracketed sub-segments. The number of opening brackets matches the number of closing brackets in such cases.
Various forms of brackets are used in mathematics, with specific mathematical meanings, often for denoting specific mathematical functions and subformulas.
History
Angle brackets, or chevrons, ⟨ ⟩, were the earliest type of bracket to appear in written English. Erasmus coined the term lunula to refer to the round brackets, or (American English) parentheses, ( ), recalling the shape of the crescent moon (Latin: luna).
“Bracket” enters the record as tall punctuation mark typically used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text; opening and closing, or left and right symbols. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bracket, tall and punctuation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Bracket” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bracket, tall and punctuation provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q174565. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bracket”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bracket primary sources, Bracket archive and Bracket research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bracket”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bracket” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.