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

After attracting attention with various previous roles, Richter is the star of Welcome Home Baby, a psychological thriller from director Andreas Prochaska (The Dark Valley, Das Boot, Alex Rider) that opens Berlin’s Panorama sidebar on Thursday and explores such themes as identity and trauma. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2025

Let’s sidebar on the pitchers before getting back to Ichiro: Sabathia was a no-brainer. —Chris Branch, The Athletic, 22 Jan. 2025

Researchers suspect some of the sediment that still makes it down the river is spilling into Breton Sound, thanks to floods over the past dozen years that punched new holes in the eastern bank of the lower Mississippi (see sidebar, below). —Bywarren Cornwall, science.org, 9 Jan. 2025

The film will world premiere in Berlinale’s Panorama sidebar next week. —Leo Barraclough, Variety, 6 Feb. 2025

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