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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Syntax

Phrase

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/freɪz/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, phrase means: A group of words that works as one unit in a sentence but usually has no subject-verb pair, such as 'the old library' or 'in the morning'.

In Turkish: öbek, sözcük öbeği, sözcük grubu

How it is used

Linguists name phrases after their head: noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, adjective phrase. In everyday English, phrase also means any short fixed expression (a useful phrase).

Example sentences

  1. 'In the morning' is a prepositional phrase that tells us when.

  2. In syntax, even a single word like 'Ankara' can count as a noun phrase.

Common collocations

  • noun phrase
  • verb phrase
  • prepositional phrase
  • phrase structure
  • noun phraseA group of words built around a noun or pronoun that works as one unit, often as subject or object, such as 'the tall man in the blue coat'.
  • clauseA group of words that contains a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence, such as 'because it was raining'.
  • constituentA word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the structure of a sentence, such as a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase.
  • syntaxThe study of how words are combined into phrases and sentences, and the rules of a language that decide which word orders and structures are possible.

More terms: Syntax

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