rephrase

American

[ree-freyz] / riˈfreɪz /

verb (used with object)

rephrased, rephrasing

to phrase again or differently.

He rephrased the statement to give it less formality.

rephrase British

/ riːˈfreɪz /

verb

(tr) to phrase again, esp so as to express more clearly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rephrase

First recorded in 1890–95; re- + phrase

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She said she volunteered in November to mediate the meetings, instructing residents to wait their turn to speak or rephrase their questions without profanity.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026

Blanche keeps getting interrupted by mostly successful objections from the prosecutors, and the judge has occasionally asked him to rephrase the question.

From BBC • May 16, 2024

It’s surprisingly challenging to definitively answer this question, as we’ll see, so let’s slightly rephrase: How many naked-eye stars host planets that we know about?

From Scientific American • Oct. 6, 2023

How do we rephrase leaping to intention, which is a real stumbling block?

From Salon • Aug. 27, 2023

Thus, we can finally rephrase the question about the modern world’s inequalities as follows: why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023