From Oxford University Press


Parentheses and brackets ( ) [ ]

Parentheses are mainly used to separate off information that isn’t essential to the meaning of the rest of the sentence. If you removed the material within the parentheses, the sentence would still make perfectly good sense. For example:
He coined the term ‘hypnotism’ (from the Greek word hypnos meaning 'sleep') and practiced it frequently.
He [the police officer] can’t prove they did it.

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Grammar and usage