title: Why does del (x) with parentheses around the variable name work?
body: <p>Why does this piece of code work the way it does?</p>
  
  <pre><code>x = 3
  print(dir())   #output indicates that x is defined in the global scope
  del (x)
  print(dir())   #output indicates that x is not defined in the global scope
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My understanding is that <code>del</code> is a keyword in Python, and what follows <code>del</code> should be a name. <code>(name)</code> is not a name. Why does the example seem to show that <code>del (name)</code> works the same as <code>del name</code>?</p>