phrase
/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.30 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A short written or spoken expression.
noun
A word or, more commonly, a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, always containing an expressed or implied head (the principal word or subgroup, with core importance) and often consisting of a head plus some other elaborating words.
noun
A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.
Example Sentences
- "I've made progress, but this is still, in Churchill's phrase, just "the end of the beginning.""
- "Holonyms: clause, sentence; phrasing, phraseology, turn of phrase; phrase-book; document, message; language; communication"
- "Meronyms: head, complement, adjunct, supplement, modifier; term, word"
- "Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?"
- "There is always a head in a phrase. When it is not accompanied by anything else, we have a one-word phrase. Cheese can be an NP [noun phrase], and so can squid. If we didn't allow one-word phrases, we'd often have to say "either a noun or an NP," "either a verb or a VP," and so on. When I talk about a phrase, always remember that I don't mean a unit containing more than one word; I mean a unit with at least one word (the head), which may contain other words as well."
- "Thou speak'st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst."
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin phrasis (“diction”), from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “manner of expression”), from φράζω (phrázō, “to tell, express”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: φράσις
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/
- British English: /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/