sidebar

noun

side·​bar ˈsīd-ˌbär 

1

a

: a short news story or graphic accompanying and presenting sidelights of a major story

b

: something incidental : sidelight

a sidebar to the essay's central theme

2

: a conference between the judge, the lawyers, and sometimes the parties to a case that the jury does not hear

Examples of sidebar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Google first brought Gemini to the sidebar in Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides in June. —Emma Roth, The Verge, 12 Dec. 2024

Neither the agreement nor the sidebar later have been ratified by the U.N. Security Council, which held closed-door consultations on the matter Wednesday. —Tovah Lazaroff, NBC News, 5 Dec. 2024

The black comedy, which previously won the Horizons sidebar at the Venice Film Festival, is set in 1989 during the festive season that immediately precedes the downfall of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. —John Bleasdale, Variety, 23 Nov. 2024

Berlin subsequently reduced the size of its series sidebar. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 23 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Legal Definition

sidebar

noun

side·​bar ˈsīd-ˌbär 

: sidebar conference

had failed to request a sidebar before injecting the collateral offense into the trial

—Dockery v. State, 659 So. 2d 219 (1994)

also : the place near or before the bench where a sidebar conference takes place

the judge informed both attorneys…that they…could stand at sidebar while questions were posed

—Commonwealth v. Urena, 632 N.E.2d 1200 (1994)

compare bench, stand

sidebar adjective