phrase

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A sequence of words that have meaning, especially when forming part of a sentence.
• noun A characteristic way or mode of expression.
• noun A brief, apt, and cogent expression.
• noun Music A short passage or segment, often consisting of four measures or forming part of a larger unit.
• noun A series of dance movements forming a unit in a choreographic pattern.
• intransitive verb To express orally or in writing.
• intransitive verb To divide (a passage) into phrases.
• intransitive verb To combine (notes) in a phrase.
• intransitive verb To make or express phrases.
• intransitive verb Music To perform a passage with the correct phrasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To employ peculiar phrases or forms of speech; ex press one's self.
• In music, to divide a piece in performance into short sections or phrases, so as to bring out the metrical and harmonic form of the whole, and make it musically intelligible; also, to perform any group of tones without pause.
• To express or designate by a particular phrase or term; call; style.
• noun A brief expression; more specifically, two or more words expressing what is practically a single notion, and thus performing the office of a single part of speech, or entering with a certain degree of unity into the structure of a sentence.
• noun A peculiar or characteristic expression; a mode of expression peculiar to a language; an idiom.
• noun The manner or style in which a person ex presses himself; diction; phraseology; language; also, an expression, or a form of expression.
• noun In music, a short and somewhat independent division or part of a piece, less complete than a period, and usually closing with a cadence or a half-cadence.
• noun In fencing, a period between the beginning and end of a short passage at arms between fencers during which there is no pause, each fencer thrusting and parrying in turn
• noun See the adjectives.
• noun Synonyms See term.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To express in words, or in peculiar words; to call; to style.
• noun A brief expression, sometimes a single word, but usually two or more words forming an expression by themselves, or being a portion of a sentence.
• noun A short, pithy expression; especially, one which is often employed; a peculiar or idiomatic turn of speech.
• noun A mode or form of speech; the manner or style in which any one expreses himself; diction; expression.
• noun (Mus.) A short clause or portion of a period.
• noun a book of idiomatic phrases.
• intransitive verb rare To use proper or fine phrases.
• intransitive verb (Mus.) To group notes into phrases. See Phrase, n., 4.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A short written or spoken expression.
• noun grammar A word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, usually consisting of a head, or central word, and elaborating words.
• noun music A small section of music in a larger piece.
• verb intransitive (music) To perform a passage with the correct phrasing.
• verb transitive To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of words.
• verb transitive (music) To divide into melodic phrases.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun dance movements that are linked in a single choreographic sequence
• noun an expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence
• noun an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up
• verb put into words or an expression
• verb divide, combine, or mark into phrases
• noun a short musical passage