phrase Definition
phrase (frāz)
noun
- a manner or style of speech or expression; phraseology
- a short, colorful or forceful expression
- a connected series of movements in a formal dance
- Gram. a sequence of two or more words conveying a single thought or forming a distinct part of a sentence but not containing a subject and predicate
- Linguis. a group of words that functions as a syntactic unit
- Music a short, distinct part or passage, usually of two, four, or eight measures
Etymology: L phrasis, diction < Gr < phrazein, to speak
transitive verb, intransitive verb phrased, phras′·ing
- to express in words or in a phrase
- Music to mark off or divide (notes) into phrases
phrase Synonyms
phrase
n.
Grammatical phrases include: prepositional, gerund, gerundive, participial, infinitive, noun, adjective, adjectival, adverbial, conjunctive, absolute, attributive, headed, nonheaded, exocentric, endocentric, subordinate, restrictive, nonrestrictive.
phrase Usage Examples
Converse of object
- coin: Chris first coined the phrase " The Long Tail " in the 2004 Wired article by the same name.
- borrow: It's expensive, but to borrow a phrase from a rather different product, it does what it says on the tin.
- repeat: He repeated a phrase in Welsh for a meeting of the Carmarthen Labor Party.
- translate: Break down complex forms into easier forms Code Generation: translate each phrase into equivalent form.
- hear: How many times have you heard the phrase, " resting the voice " ?
- use: Then the price, I've often used the phrase, " You get a lot of bang for your buck " .
Adjective modifier
- prepositional: Prepositional phrases can modify nouns, e.g. the man in the moon.
- exact: This is the exact phrase George W Bush used to defeat John Kerry in November 2004.
- adverbial: See noun phrase, adjectival phrase and adverbial phrase.
- Latin: Monrovia 56 Which Latin phrase means, in good faith?
- meaningless: Whether the lack of generally meaningless stock phrases is a risk, I don't know.
- participial: Examples: Verbs, nouns, conjunctions participial phrase a phrase beginning with a present or past participle.
Modifies a noun
- ': What do I mean by the phrase ' the inadequate state of the current intellectual vocabulary ' ?
- quot: Was a favortramontin phrase quot we're your policy includes.
Noun used with modifier
- noun: The search engine will examine the query, extract nouns and noun phrases and construct a query for the user.
- keyword: Goto Keywords - Shows how many times each keyword phrase was used in the last month.
- traffic-pulling: So how is it possible to select a powerful traffic-pulling phrase in this fashion without researching it in real time?
- catch: There are a few catch phrases thrown in from various other famous films along the way, which add to the comedy.
- multi-word: Keyphrases are multi-word phrases used in search engine queries.
- search: What sorts of search phrases do you think they will be typing in on Google?
Browse dictionary entries near phrase
- ‹ phrasal
- ‹ Phrack
- ‹ phr
- ‹ photovoltaic
- ‹ phototypesetting
- ‹ phototube
- ‹ phototropism
- ‹ phototransistor
- ‹ phototonus
- ‹ photothermic
- phrasemaking ›
- phraseogram ›
- phraseologist ›
- phraseology ›
- phrasing ›
- phratry ›
- phreak ›
- Phreaking ›
- phreatic ›
- phreatophyte ›

