phrase

American  

[frayz] / freɪz /

noun

• phrases
  plural

1. Grammar.

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

   2. (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.

3. a characteristic, current, or proverbial expression.

   a hackneyed phrase.

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

5. a way of speaking, mode of expression, or phraseology.

   a book written in the phrase of the West.

6. a brief utterance or remark.

   In a phrase, he's a dishonest man.

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

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verb (used with object)

• phrases,
  present (3rd person singular)
• phrased,
  past participle,  past
• phrasing
  present participle

1. to express or word in a particular way.

   to phrase an apology well.

2. to express in words.

   to phrase one's thoughts.

3. Music.

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

   2. to group (notes) into a phrase.

verb (used without object)

• phrases,
  present (3rd person singular)
• phrased,
  past participle,  past
• phrasing
  present participle

1. Music. to perform a passage or piece with proper phrasing.

phrase British  

/ freɪz /

noun

1. a group of words forming an immediate syntactic constituent of a clause Compare clause noun phrase verb phrase

2. a particular expression, esp an original one

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

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

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verb

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

2. to express orally or in a phrase

phrase Cultural  

1. 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.

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Synonym Usage

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 Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misphrase
  verb (used with object)
• unphrased
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• phrases
  plural

Participles

• phrasing
  present
• phrased
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• phrase
  simple
• phrases
  simple
• have phrased
  perfect
• has phrased
  perfect
• am phrasing
  progressive
• are phrasing
  progressive
• is phrasing
  progressive
• have been phrasing
  perfect progressive
• has been phrasing
  perfect progressive

Past

• phrased
  simple
• had phrased
  perfect
• was phrasing
  progressive
• were phrasing
  progressive
• had been phrasing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will phrase
  simple
• will have phrased
  perfect
• will be phrasing
  progressive
• will have been phrasing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of phrase

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

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Explanation

The verb phrase means to articulate. You should be careful how you phrase your criticism of your boss. Saying he can be demanding is probably okay. Saying he is an ogre is probably not. In grammar, a phrase is a group of words that is part of a sentence but can't stand alone. In the sentence, "We should go to your house," "to your house" is a phrase. A phrase can also be an idiomatic saying. If you told a foreign exchange student to "get off the fence" and pick a side in the debate, he might look puzzled at the phrase and say, "But I'm nowhere near a fence!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phrase phrases phrased phrasing

Asked if the Spanish phrase was connecting with voters, Hinojosa said, “for sure with Latinos, and 1,000 percent with Latinas.”

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026

A slip of paper with the phrase, "Peculiar Institution" -- a euphemism for slavery -- was found in the ornate display case of a tiny 1860 portrait of two wide-eyed girls with identical dresses.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026

"Avoid links in unsolicited messages, and never give anyone your password, verification codes or wallet recovery phrase."

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

Late in the convention, the delegates adopted the additional phrase “or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” in important part to expand the reach of impeachable corruption beyond technical bribery.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026

“Now you’re misquoting the Bible phrase that became the first Morse code message transmitted in the United States on May twenty-fourth, 1844!”

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

"A lot of the time, I would hear people using phrases like 'Is it because I is black?' or 'Booyakasha'," he recalls.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

Coroners are in the business of endings, putting a neat period on decades of damage with phrases like “cardiac arrest.”

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

Words and phrases that will earn you a mark: genuinely, load-bearing, smoking gun, X is the new Y, and any “crazy hyphenated contractions that no one would normally use,” says Mehta, 33.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

A looming ice shelf in the background is surrounded by phrases including, “A Man. A Plan. A Meltdown,” and “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

Then, look at the new magazines with sports on them and write down the phrases that are cool, like “the whole kit and kaboodle,” which means “everything,” and “put on a clinic,” which means “taught.”

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

He stumbled into his fate by saying demeaning, insulting things that could have been phrased diplomatically.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

The Stueve brothers always defended raw milk, as brother Melvin Stueve phrased it, “the very best and safest milk there is.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026

In a social media post later on Saturday, Pochin said her comments "were phrased poorly and I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention".

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2025

And the way they phrased it was that they were questioning her.

From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2025

“Work hard” was how she had phrased it in the letter.

From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty

The latter phrasing is considered far weaker in the language of UN negotiations, where every word is closely scrutinised.

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

Tremblay said the pitch has to be "Canada has stuff that the world needs" - which is the exact phrasing Carney has opted for.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

His saxophone’s tone grows more appealingly buttery with each passing year, yet his phrasing has lost none of its urgency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

At the end of the show, a stunning reading of “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” revealed the instinctive ease with which she can navigate the sweet, syncopated phrasing of Dominican merengue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

Harry had told me that Bach should be played very softly, and very loudly, to exaggerate the phrasing, because the pieces themselves are so ordered that the emotion needs to come through in the playing.

From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson

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