Word.ws English Dictionary

metaphrases

metaphrases is the plural of metaphrase.

metaphrases is the third-person singular simple present indicative of metaphrase.

Meaning of metaphrase

Noun

metaphrase (plural metaphrases)

  1. A literal, word-for-word translation.
  2. An answering phrase; repartee.
    • I'm somewhat dull still in the manly art
      Of phrase and metaphrase. Why, any man
      Can carve a score of white Loves out of snow,
      As Buonarroti down in Florence there,
      And set them on the wall in some safe shade […]1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Eighth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC

See all 3 meanings of metaphrase

Questions about metaphrases

What is metaphrases the plural of?
Metaphrases is the plural of metaphrase.

Words near metaphrases in the dictionary

  1. metaphragmal
  2. metaphragmata
  3. metaphrand
  4. metaphrase
  5. metaphrased
  6. metaphrases
  7. metaphrasing
  8. metaphrasis
  9. metaphrast
  10. metaphrastic
  11. metaphrastical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: metaphrases (page history and authors); metaphrase (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “metaphrases.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/metaphrases. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.