phrase
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: frāz
ipa: /fɹeɪz/
rhymes: -eɪz
homophone: fraise
homophone: frays
Forms: form: phrases
Etymology: From Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “I tell, express”).
Senses: hypernyms: syntagma
glosses: A short written or spoken expression.
examples: text: Holonyms: clause, sentence; phrasing, phraseology, turn of phrase; phrase-book; document, message; language; communication
text: Meronyms: head, complement, adjunct, supplement, modifier; term, word
text: 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?
ref: 2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864:
text: 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.
ref: 2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 12:
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
hypernyms: utterance
glosses: 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.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A small section of music in a larger piece.
examples: text: Thou speak'st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
text: […] From out a common vein of memory / Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, […]
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part II”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 39:
glosses: A mode or form of speech; diction; expression.
topics: dance
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.
Synonyms: sense: expression
word: figure of speech
sense: expression
word: locution
word: phrase
word: expression
Hypernyms: word: linguistic unit
Hyponyms: word: noun phrase
word: adjective phrase
word: adverbial phrase
word: prepositional phrase
word: set phrase
Meronyms: word: word
Derived terms: activation phrase
adjectival phrase
adpositional phrase
adverbial phrase
antecedent phrase
bombard-phrase
bombard phrase
buzz-phrase
catch-phrase
catchphrase
catch phrase
coin a phrase
conjunctional phrase
consequent phrase
counterphrase
determiner phrase
empty phrase
filler phrase
fixed phrase
inflectional phrase
interjectional phrase
interphrase
intonational phrase
keyphrase
midphrase
misphrase
participial phrase
parting phrase
passphrase
pet phrase
phonological phrase
phrasable
phrasal
phrase-book
phrase book
phrasebook
phrasehood
phraseless
phraselet
phrasemaker
phrasemaking
phraseman
phraseme
phrasemonger
phrase name
phraseogram
phraseograph
phraseology
phrase structure
phrasy
postpositional phrase
prepositional phrase
pronominal phrase
scare phrase
seed phrase
set phrase
signal phrase
statistically improbable phrase
stock phrase
stop-phrase
subphrase
tautophrase
term phrase
tortured phrase
turn a phrase
turn of phrase