Phrase guide

square bracket

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Either of a pair of symbols, [ ], used for various purposes, e.g. to enclose text inserted or replaced by an editor, and to indicate various mathematical operations.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

either of two punctuation marks ([ or ]) used to enclose textual material

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bracket

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: punctuation, punctuation mark

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: corchete — symbol [ or ]
  • Belarusian: квадра́тная ду́жка (kvadrátnaja dúžka) — symbol [ or ]
  • Bulgarian: сре́дна ско́ба (srédna skóba) — symbol [ or ]
  • Bulgarian: квадратна скоба (kvadratna skoba) — symbol [ or ]
  • Bulgarian: структурна скоба (strukturna skoba) — symbol [ or ]
  • Catalan: claudàtor — symbol [ or ]
  • Catalan: parèntesi quadrat — symbol [ or ]
  • Chinese Mandarin: 方括號 /方括号 (fāngkuòhào) — symbol [ or ]
  • Chinese Mandarin: 中括號 /中括号 (zhōngkuòhào) — symbol [ or ]
  • Czech: hranatá závorka — symbol [ or ]
  • Czech: závorka — symbol [ or ]
  • Danish: skarp parentes — symbol [ or ]
  • Dutch: vierkant haakje — symbol [ or ]
  • Dutch: vierkante haak — symbol [ or ]
  • Dutch: blokhaakje — symbol [ or ]
  • Dutch: blokhaak — symbol [ or ]
  • Esperanto: rekta krampo — symbol [ or ]
  • Faroese: hornklombur — symbol [ or ]
  • Finnish: hakasulje — symbol [ or ]
  • Finnish: hakasulku — symbol [ or ]
  • French: crochet — symbol [ or ]
  • Galician: corchete — symbol [ or ]
  • Georgian: კვადრატული ფრჩხილები (ḳvadraṭuli prčxilebi) — symbol [ or ]
  • German: eckige Klammer — symbol [ or ]
  • Greek: αγκύλη (agkýli) — symbol [ or ]
  • Hungarian: szögletes zárójel — symbol [ or ]
  • Irish: lúibín cearnach — symbol [ or ]
  • Italian: parentesi quadra — symbol [ or ]
  • Japanese: 角括弧 (kakukakko) — symbol [ or ]
  • Macedonian: средна заграда (sredna zagrada) — symbol [ or ]
  • Malay: tanda kurung siku — symbol [ or ]
  • Malayalam: കോഷ്ഠം (kōṣṭhaṁ) — symbol [ or ]
  • Manx: lhoobeen — symbol [ or ]
  • Māori: taiepa tūtika — symbol [ or ]
  • Marathi: चौकटी कंस (caukṭī kausa) — symbol [ or ]
  • Marathi: चौकोनी कंस (caukonī kausa) — symbol [ or ]
  • Norman: crotchet cârré — symbol [ or ]
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hakeparentes — symbol [ or ]
  • Polish: nawias kwadratowy — symbol [ or ]
  • Portuguese: colchete — symbol [ or ]
  • Portuguese: parêntese reto — symbol [ or ]
  • Romanian: paranteză pătrată — symbol [ or ]
  • Romanian: paranteză dreaptă — symbol [ or ]
  • Russian: квадра́тная ско́бка (kvadrátnaja skóbka) — symbol [ or ]
  • Scottish Gaelic: camag cheàrnach — symbol [ or ]
  • Serbo-Croatian: uglata zagrada — symbol [ or ]
  • Slovak: zátvorka — symbol [ or ]
  • Slovak: hranatá zátvorka — symbol [ or ]
  • Slovene: oglati oklepaj — symbol [ or ]
  • Spanish: corchete — symbol [ or ]
  • Swedish: hakparentes — symbol [ or ]
  • Tagalog: panalikop — symbol [ or ]
  • Turkish: köşeli ayraç — symbol [ or ]
  • Turkish: köşeli parantez — symbol [ or ]
  • Ukrainian: квадра́тна ду́жка (kvadrátna dúžka) — symbol [ or ]
  • Vietnamese: dấu ngoặc vuông — symbol [ or ]
  • Welsh: bach petryal — symbol [ or ]