phrase

noun

1. A short written or spoken expression.
2. 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.

   “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.”

3. A small section of music in a larger piece.
4. (archaic)A mode or form of speech; diction; expression.

   “Thou speak'st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst.”

   “[…] From out a common vein of memory / Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, […]”

5. A short individual motion forming part of a choreographed dance.

verb

1. (transitive)To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of particular words.

   “I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.”

   “These suns — for so they phrase 'em.”

   “Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.”

2. (intransitive, transitive)To perform (a passage) with a particular phrasing.
3. (transitive)To divide into melodic phrases.