phrase
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.
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.
a characteristic, current, or proverbial expression: a hackneyed phrase.
Music. a division of a composition, commonly a passage of four or eight measures, forming part of a period.
a way of speaking, mode of expression, or phraseology: a book written in the phrase of the West.
a brief utterance or remark: In a phrase, he's a dishonest man.
Dance. a sequence of motions making up part of a choreographic pattern.
to express or word in a particular way: to phrase an apology well.
to express in words: to phrase one's thoughts.
Music.
to mark off or bring out the phrases of (a piece), especially in execution.
to group (notes) into a phrase.
Music. to perform a passage or piece with proper phrasing.
Origin of phrase
1synonym study For phrase
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
- frays, phrase
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use phrase in a sentence
It’s a reference to the phrase “put some mustard on it” — which refers to the act of adding a bit of an edge to a throw.
Mustard raises $1.7M to improve athletic mechanics with AI | Brian Heater | September 4, 2020 | TechCrunchIn the midst of the lockdowns, Google reported that searches using the phrase “in stock” increased more than 70% during April.
A Corona Xmas: Why physical stores will power online shopping this holiday season | Greg Sterling | September 4, 2020 | Search Engine LandDepending on how “significant” this change is, it may mean advertisers won’t be able to run an n-gram analysis on groups of lower-volume keywords to understand what words or phrases are working and which ones are not.
Google Ads to limit Search Terms reporting, citing privacy | Ginny Marvin | September 2, 2020 | Search Engine LandIn simple terms, voice search SEO is a technique that optimizes the content, phrases, keywords, metadata, and more to enable your voice search to rank on top whenever a user asks questions.
Voice search SEO guide: Trends and best practices | Ricky Wang | September 2, 2020 | Search Engine WatchAny time you see the phrase “order of magnitude,” you’re seeing a reference to a logarithm.
Explainer: What are logarithms and exponents? | Bethany Brookshire | August 12, 2020 | Science News For Students
Though conversational and often witty, his meandering phrases become increasingly unpredictable as they develop.
A glossary of what all those strange phrases in classic Christmas songs really mean.
The Most Confusing Christmas Music Lyrics Explained (VIDEO) | Kevin Fallon | December 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThese are the phrases we want to hear from male allies across the tech industry in 2015 that show true, meaningful support.
Tech’s Male ‘Feminists’ Aren’t Helping | Cate Huston, Karen Catlin | December 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut several of these words and phrases do manage to secure an enduring place in the English language.
Feminist, Bae, Turnt: Time’s ‘Worst Words’ List Is Sexist and Racist | Samantha Allen | November 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOne of the memorable phrases in the novel is the idea that Auschwitz gives you a picture of your soul.
Martin Amis Talks About Nazis, Novels, and Cute Babies | Ronald K. Fried | October 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTEach sentence came as if torn piecemeal from his unwilling tongue; short, jerky phrases, conceived in pain and delivered in agony.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairHe sang the words with an odd, emphatic slowness, turning to look at Lettice between the phrases.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodThe unfinished phrases floated, but dared not come to earth; they gathered but remained undelivered.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodI drew back from the rim of Writing-On-the-Stone, that set of whispered phrases echoing in my ears.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairIn all letters which the son writes to his father he uses the most exalted titles and honourable phrases he can imagine.
Our Little Korean Cousin | H. Lee M. Pike
British Dictionary definitions for phrase
/ (freɪz) /
a group of words forming an immediate syntactic constituent of a clause: Compare clause (def. 1), noun phrase, verb phrase
a particular expression, esp an original one
music a small group of notes forming a coherent unit of melody
(in choreography) a short sequence of dance movements
music to divide (a melodic line, part, etc) into musical phrases, esp in performance
to express orally or in a phrase
Origin of phrase
1Collins 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
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.
Browse