paraphrase

noun para·phrase \ ˈper-ə-ˌfrāz , ˈpa-rə- \

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

1 : a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form

The teacher asked the students to write a paraphrase of the poem.

2 : the use or process of paraphrasing in studying or teaching composition

paraphrase, which aims rather at recapturing the general impression of a foreign work
—Times Literary Supplement

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Examples of paraphrase in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples of paraphrase from the Web

Democrats quickly claimed the paraphrase was wrong.

— aaron blake, Washington Post, "The simplest, most fundamental question about the Nunes memo still has no answer. Why?," 26 Feb. 2018
Regularly, Ferry’s translation becomes a kind of paraphrase.

— denis feeney, New York Times, "David Ferry Won the National Book Award in His 80s. In His 90s, He Has Translated Virgil.," 5 Dec. 2017
Mr. Bishop said, referring to Dr. King’s paraphrase of the 19th-century abolitionist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker.

— gretchen morgenson, New York Times, "Justice Department Weighs In Against Wells Fargo in a Whistle-Blower Suit," 6 June 2017
OK, that’s merely the paraphrase of Kelly’s comments to Sports Illustrated’s MMQB about the quarterback.

— daniel mano, The Mercury News, "Chip Kelly: Kaepernick’s protest last season was ‘zero distraction’," 31 Mar. 2017
That is author and retired pastor Eugene Peterson’s rendering of Matthew 5:37 in The Message, his popular paraphrase of the Bible that’s sold millions of copies and endeared him to Christians across the theological spectrum.

— matthew vines, Time, "A Beloved Former Pastor Retracted His Support of Same-Sex Marriage. It Will Harm LGBTQ People More Than He May Know," 14 July 2017
Safranski’s book (a best seller in Germany) is aimed squarely at a German readership of Bildungsbürger, educated and tolerant of abstractions and paraphrases.

— michael hofmann, New York Times, "He Built Roads. He Oversaw Mines. He Shrank the Deficit. He Was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.," 16 June 2017

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.

Did You Know?

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.