word-vault/dist/data/cards/ph/phrase.json

A lightweight JavaScript package for English word definitions and collections.

{
    "term": "phrase",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox3000": true,
    "cefr": "a1",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a group of words that have a particular meaning when used together",
            "cefr": "a1",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a memorable/catchy phrase"
                },
                {
                    "text": "‘Start slowly’ is the key phrase for the first-time marathon runner."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She was, in her own favourite phrase, ‘a woman without a past’."
                },
                {
                    "text": "colourful words and phrases"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He just comes out with the same old stock phrases."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Her unfortunate choice of phrase offended most of the audience."
                },
                {
                    "text": "In 1998, he trademarked the phrase ‘Freedom of Expression’."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["colloquial", "idiomatic", "key"],
                "verb + phrase": ["employ", "turn", "use"],
                "phrase + noun": ["book"],
                "preposition": ["in a/​the phrase"],
                "phrases": ["a choice of phrase", "a turn of phrase"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "a small group of words (usually without a finite verb) that together have a particular meaning and that typically form part of a sentence. ‘the green car’ and ‘on Friday morning’ are phrases.",
            "labels": "(grammar)",
            "cefr": "a1",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a two-word phrase"
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Language"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["colloquial", "idiomatic", "key"],
                "verb + phrase": ["employ", "turn", "use"],
                "phrase + noun": ["book"],
                "preposition": ["in a/​the phrase"],
                "phrases": ["a choice of phrase", "a turn of phrase"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "a short series of notes that form a unit within a longer passage in a piece of music",
            "labels": "(music)",
            "examples": []
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "used to introduce a well-known expression that you have changed slightly in order to be funny",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Tasting is believing, to coin a phrase! *(= the usual phrase is ‘seeing is believing’)*."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "used to show that you are aware that you are using an expression that is not new",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Oh well, no news is good news, to coin a phrase."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "a particular way of describing something",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "He is meticulous in his choice of words and turns of phrase."
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/freɪz/",
                "audio": "ph/phrase/phrase__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/freɪz/",
                "audio": "ph/phrase/phrase__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "mid 16th cent. (in the sense ‘style or manner of expression’): via late Latin from Greek phrasis, from phrazein ‘declare, tell’."
}