Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: Latin
Origin: phrasis, from Greek, from phrazein 'to point out, explain, tell'

phrase

1 noun
     
Related topics: Music, Grammar
phrase1 W3 [countable]
1 a group of words that together have a particular meaning, especially when they express the meaning well in a few words:
She used the phrase 'survival of the fittest'.
Edward Heath's famous phrase, 'the unacceptable face of capitalism'
2 technicalSLG a group of words without a finite verb, especially when they are used to form part of a sentence, such as 'walking along the road' and 'a bar of soap' ➔ clause (2), sentence1 (1)
3APM a short group of musical notes that is part of a longer piece

➔ to coin a phrase

at coin2 (2)

➔ a turn of phrase

at turn2 (11)

➔ turn a phrase

at turn1 (20)WORD FOCUS: phrase WORD FOCUS: phrase
similar words: expression, idiom, cliche, metaphor, saying, turn of phrase
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
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