phrase

American  

[freyz] / 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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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

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

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

Whatever else this enigmatic phrase may cover, it is plain from British constitutional history, the statements of those involved in drafting and ratifying the U.S.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

The belief that promoted sides that stayed up in their first season are often relegated in their second is a popular one, with the phrase 'second-season syndrome' regularly thrown about.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

I thought a lot about that phrase and my death hasn’t arrived yet, but there can be various types of deaths.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Search for the phrase “too much cash” and you will find numerous articles penned by the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab, warning about the risk of being underinvested.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

She knew the Latin phrase “tempus fugit,” which means “time flies,” like a bird—but there were flightless birds, after all: ostriches and emus and dodos and so on.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

Cole's vocal tics tend to include the names of her husband, her son or the family cat or random phrases such as "good night" during the day time.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Trading firms already scan his feed for mentions of companies or phrases such as “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” which might indicate that it is an important message.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

I also steal a lot of cool phrases from my son.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Gabriel Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 with bets placed on the prediction market Kalshi about specific words or phrases that would appear in the president's speeches, ABC News reported.

From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026

She was not good; she was not original: she used to repeat sounding phrases from books: she never offered, nor had, an opinion of her own.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

"We told you: keep your word or pay the price," is how Iran's lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf recently phrased it on social media, quoting the agreement.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

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

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

From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2025

It is phrased like a suggestion, not a command.

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth

A UK government spokesperson said: "We have previously acknowledged this phrasing and took immediate steps to ensure it was not replicated."

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

His tenor 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 ● Aug. 5, 2026

Patel’s style has been built around dark insinuation, and in this case his phrasing was official enough to seem consequential, yet vague enough to be exploited.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

This phrasing appears to reserve press conferences for big announcements — a change from the past few Fed chairs who spoke to reporters four and then eight times a year after monetary-policy decisions.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026

She mentioned it to her coworker, Heather, phrasing it carefully.

From "Son" by Lois Lowry

Related Words

• expression
• idiom
• motto
• phrasing
• remark
• saying
• slogan
• terminology
• utterance
• wording