In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words (or sometimes a single word) that form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause.
Read more about Phrase: Examples, Heads and Dependents, Representing Phrases, Confusion: Phrases in Theories of Syntax, The Verb Phrase (VP) As A Source of Controversy
Famous quotes containing the word phrase:
“Mormon colonization south of this point in early times was characterized as “going over the Rim,” and in colloquial usage the same phrase came to connote violent death.”
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper—a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)