phrase

[ freyz ]
See synonyms for: phrasephrasesphrasing on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. Grammar.

    • a sequence of two or more words arranged in a grammatical construction and acting as a unit in a sentence.

    • (in English) a sequence of two or more words that does not contain a finite verb and its subject or that does not consist of clause elements such as subject, verb, object, or complement, as a preposition and a noun or pronoun, an adjective and noun, or an adverb and verb.

  2. Rhetoric. a word or group of spoken words that the mind focuses on momentarily as a meaningful unit and is preceded and followed by pauses.

  1. a characteristic, current, or proverbial expression: a hackneyed phrase.

  2. Music. a division of a composition, commonly a passage of four or eight measures, forming part of a period.

  3. a way of speaking, mode of expression, or phraseology: a book written in the phrase of the West.

  4. a brief utterance or remark: In a phrase, he's a dishonest man.

  5. Dance. a sequence of motions making up part of a choreographic pattern.

verb (used with object),phrased, phras·ing.
  1. to express or word in a particular way: to phrase an apology well.

  2. to express in words: to phrase one's thoughts.

  1. Music.

    • to mark off or bring out the phrases of (a piece), especially in execution.

    • to group (notes) into a phrase.

verb (used without object),phrased, phras·ing.
  1. Music. to perform a passage or piece with proper phrasing.

Origin of phrase

1
First recorded in 1520–30; (noun) back formation from phrases, plural of earlier phrasis, from Latin phrasis “diction, style” (plural phrasēs), from Greek phrásis “diction, style, speech,” equivalent to phrá(zein) “to speak” + -sis-sis; (verb) derivative of the noun

synonym study For phrase

1. Phrase, expression, idiom, locution all refer to grammatically related groups of words. A phrase is a sequence of two or more words that make up a grammatical construction, usually lacking a finite verb and hence not a complete clause or sentence: shady lane (a noun phrase); at the bottom (a prepositional phrase); very slowly (an adverbial phrase). In general use, phrase refers to any frequently repeated or memorable group of words, usually of less than sentence length or complexity: a case of feast or famine—to use the well-known phrase. Expression is the most general of these words and may refer to a word, a phrase, or even a sentence: prose filled with old-fashioned expressions. An idiom is a phrase or larger unit of expression that is peculiar to a single language or a variety of a language and whose meaning, often figurative, cannot easily be understood by combining the usual meanings of its individual parts, as to go for broke. Locution is a somewhat formal term for a word, a phrase, or an expression considered as peculiar to or characteristic of a regional or social dialect or considered as a sample of language rather than as a meaning-bearing item: a unique set of locutions heard only in the mountainous regions of the South.

Other words from phrase

  • mis·phrase, verb (used with object), mis·phrased, mis·phras·ing.
  • un·phrased, adjective

Words that may be confused with phrase

Words Nearby phrase

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How to use phrase in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for phrase

phrase

/ (freɪz) /


noun
  1. a group of words forming an immediate syntactic constituent of a clause: Compare clause (def. 1), noun phrase, verb phrase

  2. a particular expression, esp an original one

  1. music a small group of notes forming a coherent unit of melody

  2. (in choreography) a short sequence of dance movements

verb(tr)
  1. music to divide (a melodic line, part, etc) into musical phrases, esp in performance

  2. to express orally or in a phrase

Origin of phrase

1
C16: from Latin phrasis, from Greek: speech, from phrazein to declare, tell

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for phrase

phrase

A group of grammatically connected words within a sentence: “One council member left in a huff”; “She got much satisfaction from planting daffodil bulbs.” Unlike clauses, phrases do not have both a subject and a predicate.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.