phrase
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A short written or spoken expression.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
frayzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹeɪz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A short written or spoken expression.
grammar
An expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence
grammar
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.
verb
transitive
To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of particular words.
Divide, combine, or mark into phrases
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A short written or spoken expression.
Used this way, phrase is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- idiomatic expression , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use phrase
- “I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The grouping of musical phrases in a melodic line.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A book containing common expressions in a foreign language along with their translations.
The grammatical arrangement of words in sentences.
A phrase beginning with a preposition.
A phrase that functions as a pronoun.
An expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up.
A distinctive spoken or written expression.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.