phrase

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
phrase/freɪz/

▶noun

• 1 a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit.

  ■ an idiomatic or short pithy expression.

• 2 Music a group of notes forming a distinct unit within a longer passage.

▶verb

• 1 put into a particular form of words.

• 2 (often as noun phrasing) divide (music) into phrases in a particular way.

– derivatives
phrasal adjective,
phrasally adverb.

– phrases
turn of phrase a particular or characteristic manner of expression.

– origin C16: via late L. from Gk phrasis, from phrazein ‘declare, tell’.