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When we paraphrase, we provide a version that can exist beside the original (rather than replace it). We paraphrase all the time. When you tell a friend what someone else has said, you're almost always paraphrasing, since you're not repeating the exact words. If you go to hear a talk, you might paraphrase the speaker's main points afterward for your friends. And when writing a paper on a short story, you might start off your essay with a paraphrase of the plot. Paraphrasing is especially useful when dealing with poetry, since poetic language is often difficult and poems may have meanings that are hard to pin down.

Examples of paraphrase in a Sentence

Noun This is just a paraphrase of what he said, not an exact quote. your essays on human rights should have some original thought and not be simply a paraphrase of what's in the textbook Verb I'm paraphrasing, but he did say something like that. could you paraphrase your diagnosis of my medical condition, using simpler language?

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun All were drawn together by a continuous colonnade, culminating at one end in Jefferson’s great rotunda, a paraphrase of the Roman Pantheon that served as the university library. — Michael J. Lewis, WSJ, "Building Up Their Memory," 14 Oct. 2020 That’s a deft paraphrase of an old Greek mythic principle: Oblos (great wealth) leads to hubris (pride), inevitably followed by the goddess Nemesis (retribution). — Ralph Benko, Fortune, "Donald Trump is a master of hypnotism. How he used the power on America—and then himself," 27 Sep. 2020 Alvim, a born-again Christian who found renewed faith while recovering from cancer, delivered a separate message about the initiative using a phrase that local media identified as a paraphrase of a 1933 speech by Goebbels. — Washington Post, "Brazil fires top culture official over Nazi-linked comments," 18 Jan. 2020 So do the devices that novelists as different as Ferrante and Knausgaard rely on: characters, dialogue, incident, chronology, and, especially, the rendering of everyday life through precise, detail-flecked paraphrase. — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, "Sex and Power in “The Catholic School”," 19 Aug. 2019 Those sayings included Wright’s paraphrase of some advice from Chicago author Nelson Algren. — Graydon Megan, chicagotribune.com, "Joseph Wright, environmental lawyer and competitive sailor, dies at 81," 10 Nov. 2019 This is a Dickinson, played by Hailee Steinfeld, who takes midnight carriage rides with Death (the rapper Wiz Khalifa), and denounces the patriarchy as — to use a genteel paraphrase — bunk. — Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, "A Very Modern Emily Dickinson (Twerking Included)," 30 Oct. 2019 The simplest answer to a shopper’s dilemma might be a paraphrase of the advice that food writer Michael Pollan offered to those of us perplexed by our mealtime choices: Buy clothes. — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, "The Troubling Ethics of Fashion in the Age of Climate Change," 18 Nov. 2019 To protect identities, here are some paraphrases from online posts: My doctor forced me to taper down opioid therapy below a level that had for years given me relief from pain and good quality of life for years. — STAT, "Stop persecuting doctors for legitimately prescribing opioids for chronic pain," 28 June 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb This, to paraphrase Walton, is a meal too good for any but hunters or very honest men. — Ted Trueblood, Field & Stream, "FS Classics: Advice to Cooks," 19 Dec. 2020 In other words, to paraphrase Rosa Brooks’ book, everything has become war and the military has become everything. — Justin Sherman, Wired, "Trump's Un-American Failure to Protect Internet Freedom," 22 Oct. 2020 To paraphrase the immortal Terrell Owens, Antonio Ramiro Romo, the grandson of a Mexican immigrant from Coahuila, is and will always be my quarterback. — Los Angeles Times, "Latinx Files: Thanksgiving (or Sansgiving) edition," 26 Nov. 2020 Tactics, to paraphrase his book, were central to Biden’s entire rationale for running. — Joseph Simonson, Washington Examiner, "Biden's moment of truth," 12 Nov. 2020 To paraphrase Johnny Paycheck, take this card and shove it. — Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, "Jason Isbell returns Country Music Association membership card," 13 Nov. 2020 People make, and spend, their own money, to paraphrase Marx (who knew a thing or two about debt, both personally and politically), but not under circumstances of their own making. — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, "The Faces of Americans Living in Debt," 5 Nov. 2020 Because, to paraphrase former Michigan football coach Gary Moeller: Nothing feels better than beating the Buckeyes, and nothing feels worse than losing to the Spartans. — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, "Jim Harbaugh has taken the fun out of Michigan-MSU football rivalry," 30 Oct. 2020 But this is 2020, and to paraphrase Drake, nothing is the same. — Angela Watercutter, Wired, "Politics Is a Metaverse. The Trump-Biden Debate Was Metahell," 30 Sep. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paraphrase.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.