tortured phrase
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.67 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A nonsensical phrase created by replacing words with synonyms in order to disguise plagiarism, typically as a result of "text spinning".
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tortured, phrase.
Example Sentences
- "Our study introduces the concept of tortured phrases: unexpected weird phrases in lieu of established ones, such as ‘counterfeit consciousness’ instead of ‘artificial intelligence.’"
- "The present study aims at investigating how tortured phrases, that are not yet listed, can be detected automatically."
- "This paper highlights the existence of “tortured phrases” in select Covid-19 literature, arguing that they could serve as a class of epistemic marker when evaluating the integrity of the scientific and biomedical literature."
- "Whereas some “tortured phrases” might represent simple mistranslations, in other cases, an abundance of such terms in a single preprint might reveal a more serious ethical issue, such as the undeclared use of a paper mill or an unprofessional editing service."
- "These tortured phrases, e.g. flag to clamor instead of signal to noise, are the results of paraphrasing tools used to escape plagiarism detection."