phrase
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: dance
dancing
entertainment
grammar
hobbies
human-sciences
lifestyle
linguistics
music
sciences
sports
Etymology: Borrowed from Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “to tell, express”).
Inflected forms:
form: phrases
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phrases
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: phrasing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: phrased
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: phrased
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A short written or spoken expression.
pos: noun
examples: I've made progress, but this is still, in Churchill's phrase, just "the end of the beginning."
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: Holonyms: clause, sentence; phrasing, phraseology, turn of phrase; phrase-book; document, message; language; communication
Meronyms: head, complement, adjunct, supplement, modifier; term, word
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?
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.
gloss: A small section of music in a larger piece.
pos: noun
gloss: A mode or form of speech; diction; expression.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: Thou speak'st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
[…] From out a common vein of memory / Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, […]
gloss: A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.
pos: noun
gloss: To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of particular words.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.
These suns — for so they phrase 'em.
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.
gloss: To perform (a passage) with a particular phrasing.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
gloss: To divide into melodic phrases.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Synonyms: phrase
expression
Related words: paraphrase
rephrase
Derived words: activation phrase
adjectival phrase
adpositional phrase
adverbial phrase
antecedent phrase
bombard phrase
bombard-phrase
buzz-phrase
catch-all phrase
catch phrase
catch-phrase
catchphrase
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
phraser
phrasing
Translations: