as in translation
an instance of expressing something in different words
your essays on human rights should have some original thought and not be simply a paraphrase of what's in the textbook
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as in to translate
to express something (as a text or statement) in different words
could you paraphrase your diagnosis of my medical condition, using simpler language?
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Recent Examples of paraphrase
Tariq Samad, IEEE Spectrum, 17 July 2025
So here’s a paraphrase that seems apt today: Harvard delenda est.
—Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 5 Apr. 2025
Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2026
Maybe that’s why this new movie — in which billionaires, to paraphrase fellow Fox property Homer Simpson, are the cause of and solution to most of life’s problems — winds up feeling like even more of a fairy tale than the original.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for paraphrase
Noun
To paraphrase, the more uncertain the situation, the more one should hedge one’s bets.
—Tariq Samad, IEEE Spectrum, 17 July 2025
So here’s a paraphrase that seems apt today: Harvard delenda est.
—Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 5 Apr. 2025
Verb
But to paraphrase the Book of Ecclesiastes, there’s a time and a place for everything.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2026
Maybe that’s why this new movie — in which billionaires, to paraphrase fellow Fox property Homer Simpson, are the cause of and solution to most of life’s problems — winds up feeling like even more of a fairy tale than the original.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for paraphrase
Recent Examples of Synonyms for paraphrase
Noun
-
Hamawy ultimately traveled with him for conference appearances and provided translation help.—
Philip Wang,
Time,
3 June 2026
-
Instructions are lost in translation.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
3 June 2026
Verb
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Read from Eduardo Halfon’s novel Tarantula, translated by Daniel Hahn.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 May 2026
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Such venues were the office space of August Wilson, who claimed that listening in on conversations helped shape his astounding facility for translating natural human speech to the stage.—
Rob Hubbard,
Twin Cities,
29 May 2026
Noun
-
Writing and translating had become my only job.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 May 2026
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For both captioning and translating, the Captify app records transcriptions of whatever runs through the glasses.—
Will Greenwald,
PC Magazine,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
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By the time a signal travels from the people doing the work to the people leading the organization, it’s been filtered, summarized, and optimized at every layer in between.—
Adrienne Down Coulson,
Fortune,
2 June 2026
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Markey sent Amazon a letter in October 2025 asking how Familiar Faces works, and summarized Amazon’s responses in a February 2026 letter that repeated his call to end Familiar Faces.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
2 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Paraphrase.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/paraphrase. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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