phases

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of phase.

   The research program advanced through several distinct phases over the decade.

   Water exists in three common phases: solid, liquid, and gas.

   Note

   The everyday plural carries every meaning of phase with it: the stages of a project, the changing shapes of the moon, and the distinct states of matter, solid, liquid and gas, that a substance can take. The same spelling also belongs to the verb form and to the plural of the old word phasis, so the sentence around it decides which you are reading.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of phase.

   The agency phases out older safety standards as newer rules take effect.

   Each manager phases new hires into their duties gradually.

   Note

   This verb rarely stands alone and usually takes in or out. A government phases in a rule it introduces step by step and phases out one it withdraws gradually, doing the work in phases. Genetics has a narrower, informal use: working out haplotypes from known genotypes. Something that phases through a wall passes right through it. Avoid writing phases for fazes, as in nothing fazes her, because that spelling is widely rejected.

3. 3
   SayFAY-seezUS/ˈfeɪsiz/UK/ˈfeɪsiːz/

   noun

   Plural of phasis.

   Note

   A second word hides behind this spelling. Phasis was an older astronomical term for a phase of the moon or a planet, and especially for the first appearance of the new moon. It is now obsolete or archaic, so in modern prose phases almost always means more than one phase. Read it as phasis only in old almanacs and astronomical writing.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3