phrase

Pluralphrases

Formsphrases, phrasing, phrased

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A short written or spoken expression made up of a few words.

   The speech ended with a memorable phrase that the crowd repeated.

   Greeting cards often rely on a few warm phrases to convey feeling.

   Similarexpression, line, saying

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of words, or sometimes a single word, that works as one unit in a sentence's structure, built around a central head word.

   A phrase functions as a single grammatical unit even when it contains several words.

   Editors learn to identify the phrases within a complex sentence before rearranging them.

   Note

   Grammarians define the term by structure, not length: a phrase is built around a head, so a single word can be one. Geoffrey K. Pullum makes the point in The Truth About English Grammar (2024): cheese alone can be a noun phrase. Unlike the everyday sense, the grammatical term does not require several words. Phrases sit inside larger units, the clause and the sentence. Modifiers and complements sit inside them.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To express a thought, action, or idea by choosing particular words.

   She phrased the apology so carefully that no one could take offense.

   Politicians often phrase promises vaguely to avoid later blame.

   Similarword, express, couch, formulate

   Note

   The verb concerns the choice of words rather than what is said. It most often follows how ("not sure how to phrase it") or appears as a past participle after an adverb: carefully phrased, "pretentiously phrased" in Louis Joseph Vance's "An Outsider" (1914). In Shakespeare and Fletcher's "for so they phrase 'em" (1613), it simply means to call or name something.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A small section of music that forms one unit within a larger piece.

   The violinist shaped each phrase with a subtle swell in volume.

   The opening phrases of the symphony return near the finale.

   Similarpassage

   Note

   Musicians hear a phrase much as a reader hears a sentence. It is a stretch of several measures that completes a musical thought, usually closes on a cadence, and joins others to build a melody. The noun has two verbs of its own, one for marking out the units and one for shaping them in performance, so a player can phrase a phrase well.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   One short, self-contained movement within the choreography of a dance.

   The choreographer added a sweeping phrase to the second act.

   The dancers linked several phrases into a flowing sequence.

   Similarmovement

   Note

   In choreography the word works much as a musical phrase does in a score. It names a short sequence of steps or gestures that holds together as one expressive idea. Phrases then join with others to build a complete dance. The unit is defined by its coherence as a gesture of meaning, not by a fixed number of steps.

6. 6
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To perform a passage of music with a particular shaping of its notes.

   The cellist phrased the long melody as a single arc of sound.

   Skilled wind players phrase by shaping each breath.

   Note

   Here the verb is about performance. A player phrases a passage by grouping its notes, shading dynamics and choosing articulation so that listeners hear its melodic units. It works with or without an object: she phrased the melody beautifully; he phrases like a singer. Its structural partner decides where the units fall, while this sense decides how they sound.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To divide a piece of music into separate melodic sections.

   The arranger phrased the chorale to clarify its underlying harmonic rhythm.

   Performers must phrase the long line before they can interpret it.

   Note

   This is the analytical side of musical phrasing. It means deciding where one melodic unit ends and the next begins, and marking the division in notation, articulation or interpretive grouping. Arrangers and editors often do it on paper. Performers do it in their heads before they can interpret a long line. The verb always takes an object: you phrase a melody, a chorale, a passage.

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