phrase
noun
- group of (one or more) words
- musical unit
verb
- express in a specific manner
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ / [ˈfɹʷeɪ̯z] / /ˈfɹɛjz/
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “to tell, express”).
- A short written or spoken expression.
“I've made progress, but this is still, in Churchill's phrase, just "the end of the beginning."”
- 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.
“Holonyms: clause, sentence; phrasing, phraseology, turn of phrase; phrase-book; document, message; language; communication”
“Meronyms: head, complement, adjunct, supplement, modifier; term, word”
- A small section of music in a larger piece.
- A mode or form of speech; diction; expression.
“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, […]”
- A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.
verb
Etymology: Borrowed from Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “to tell, express”).
- To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of particular words.
“I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.”
“These suns — for so they phrase 'em.”
- To perform (a passage) with a particular phrasing.
- To divide into melodic phrases.