11 Declarators [dcl.decl]

To specify type conversions explicitly, and as an argument of sizeof, alignof, new, or typeid, the name of a type shall be specified. This can be done with a type-id, which is syntactically a declaration for a variable or function of that type that omits the name of the entity.

type-id:
	type-specifier-seq abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$

defining-type-id:
	defining-type-specifier-seq abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$

abstract-declarator:
	ptr-abstract-declarator
	noptr-abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$ parameters-and-qualifiers trailing-return-type
	abstract-pack-declarator

ptr-abstract-declarator:
	noptr-abstract-declarator
	ptr-operator ptr-abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$

noptr-abstract-declarator:
	noptr-abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$ parameters-and-qualifiers
	noptr-abstract-declarator${}_{opt}$ [ constant-expression${}_{opt}$ ] attribute-specifier-seq${}_{opt}$
	( ptr-abstract-declarator )

abstract-pack-declarator:
	noptr-abstract-pack-declarator
	ptr-operator abstract-pack-declarator

noptr-abstract-pack-declarator:
	noptr-abstract-pack-declarator parameters-and-qualifiers
	noptr-abstract-pack-declarator [ constant-expression${}_{opt}$ ] attribute-specifier-seq${}_{opt}$
	...

It is possible to identify uniquely the location in the abstract-declarator where the identifier would appear if the construction were a declarator in a declaration. The named type is then the same as the type of the hypothetical identifier. [ Example:

int                 // int i
int *               // int *pi
int *[3]            // int *p[3]
int (*)[3]          // int (*p3i)[3]
int *()             // int *f()
int (*)(double)     // int (*pf)(double)

name respectively the types “int”, “pointer to int”, “array of 3 pointers to int”, “pointer to array of 3 int”, “function of (no parameters) returning pointer to int”, and “pointer to a function of (double) returning int”.  — end example ]

A type can also be named (often more easily) by using a typedef ([dcl.typedef]).