phrase

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phrase

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From Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “I tell, express”).

• enPR: frāz, IPA^(key): /fɹeɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Homophones: fraise, frays

phrase (plural phrases)

1. A short written or spoken expression.

   Hypernym: syntagma

3. (grammar) A word or, more commonly, a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, always containing an expressed or implied head (the principal word or subgroup, with core importance) and often consisting of a head plus some other elaborating words.

   Hypernym: utterance

   Hyponyms: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adjectival phrase, adverb phrase, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase, pronominal phrase; noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, pronoun; term, word; adpositional phrase, antecedent phrase, bombard phrase, buzz-phrase, catchphrase, conjunctional phrase, consequent phrase, determiner phrase, filler phrase, fixed phrase, inflectional phrase, interjectional phrase, parting phrase, phrase name, seed phrase, set phrase, signal phrase, statistically improbable phrase, stock phrase, stop-phrase, term phrase

   Holonyms: clause, sentence; phrasing, phraseology, turn of phrase; phrase-book; document, message; language; communication

   Meronyms: head, complement, adjunct, supplement, modifier; term, word

   • 2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist‎, volume 409, number 8864:

     Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?

   • 2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 12:

     There is always a head in a phrase. When it is not accompanied by anything else, we have a one-word phrase. Cheese can be an NP [noun phrase], and so can squid. If we didn't allow one-word phrases, we'd often have to say "either a noun or an NP," "either a verb or a VP," and so on. When I talk about a phrase, always remember that I don't mean a unit containing more than one word; I mean a unit with at least one word (the head), which may contain other words as well.

4. (music) A small section of music in a larger piece.
5. (archaic) A mode or form of speech; diction; expression.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Thou speak'st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part II”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 39:

     […] From out a common vein of memory / Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, […]

6. (dance) A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.

• (expression): figure of speech, locution
• See also Thesaurus:phrase

• phrase on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

phrase (third-person singular simple present phrases, present participle phrasing, simple past and past participle phrased)

1. (transitive) To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of particular words.

   I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.

   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     These suns — for so they phrase 'em.

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider ”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A Munsey Company, , published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 373, column 2:

     Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.

2. (intransitive, music) To perform a passage with the correct phrasing.
3. (transitive, music) To divide into melodic phrases.

• phraser
• phrasing

• paraphrase
• rephrase

• “phrase”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “phrase”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “phrase”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• E sharp, E-sharp, Harpes, Sharpe, Sherpa, Spehar, e sharp, e-sharp, harpes, hepars, pasher, phares, phaser, raphes, seraph, shaper, sharpe, sherpa, shrape, sphear

From Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “to tell, express”).

• IPA^(key): /fʁaz/ ~ /fʁɑz/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

phrase f (plural phrases)

1. sentence

• This is a false friend to English phrase.

• “phrase”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• harpes, phares

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpʰra.se/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfra.se/,

phrase

1. ablative singular of phrasis

phrase f (plural phrases)

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of frase.
   • 1905, Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho, “O annel do diplomata [The diplomat’s ring]”, in Contos e phantasias [Short stories and fantasies]‎, 2nd edition, Lisbon: Parceria Antonio Maria Pereira, page 146:

     O pobre rapaz, que conhecia a falsa posição em que se collocara com a sua phrase, sentia-se humilhado e como que vendido n’aquelle meio.

     The poor young lad, who knew the false position in which he had put himself with his phrase, felt humiliated and embarrassed in the group.