Brackets vs Braces
Brackets are vertically oriented punctuation marks that often come in pairs, with the order of the pair sometimes carrying specific meaning relevant to their application. Depending on the discipline, language, or region, brackets can have various meanings, but most of the time, their meaning is based on the context of the application. Some commonly used brackets include:
• ( ) — Parentheses, round brackets or soft brackets
• [ ] — Square brackets, closed brackets, hard brackets, or brackets (US)
• { } — Braces (UK and US), French brackets, curly brackets, definite brackets, swirly brackets, curly braces, birdie brackets, Scottish brackets, squirrelly brackets, gull wings, sea gull, squiggly brackets or fancy brackets
• ‹ › — pointy brackets, angle brackets, triangular brackets, diamond brackets, tuples, or chevrons
• < > — Inequality signs, pointy brackets, or brackets. Sometimes referred to as angle brackets, in such cases as HTML markup. Occasionally known as broken brackets or brokets.
• ｢ ｣ — corner brackets
Braces are a specific type of bracket, also known as curly brackets. They are commonly used in poetry and music to mark repeats or joined lines and in mathematics to denote or define a set. Braces are also used in computing, particularly in computer languages, for separating blocks of code (such as in C++).
Key Takeaways
- Brackets are vertical lines with a special figure and are used in languages; the figure of the bracket allows them to be used for different purposes in different contexts.
- Curly brackets are known as braces and they are used in emphasizing or defining things relative to a passage or context.
- Brackets and braces come in various forms and are used in different disciplines, languages, or regions for specific purposes.
