Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use phrasal in a sentence

10 example sentences · adjective, noun

Phrasal means relating to, or used in the manner of, a phrase. Example: “Should we classify "make up" as an idiom or as a phrasal verb?”

Examples of phrasal by meaning

nounA grammatical construct that consists of multiple words, but behaves as a single part of speech.

  • Furthermore, children demonstrated that they understood the mapping by elaborating phrasals to sententials, and reducing sententials to phrasals when imitating.1985, Dan Isaac Slobin, The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, page 105

More sentences with phrasal

  • Should we classify "make up" as an idiom or as a phrasal verb?From the entry classify
  • In 'The police told the driver to pull over', 'pull over' is a phrasal verb.From the entry phrasal verb
  • In English, most phrasal prepositions consist of an adverbial followed by a one-word preposition.From the entry phrasal preposition
  • "Break-in" is the phrasal noun from "break in"From the entry phrasal noun
  • In the phrasal verbs 'set up', 'throw away', 'shut down', 'carry out' and 'take over', the words 'up', 'away', 'down', 'out' and 'over' are the adverbial particles.From the entry adverbial particle
  • In terms of its phrasal environment, adjective intensification seems to occur most 'naturally' in predicative position.1999, Gunter R. Lorenz, Adjective Intensification – Learners Versus Native Speakers: A Corpus Study of Argumentative Writing, Amsterdam…. From the entry rhematic
  • The logical culmination of this tendency is today's mumble rap, featuring rhythmically monotonous phrasal and verbal repetition, strongly auto-tuned and, in some cases, literally mumbled.2020, Macklin Smith, Aurko Joshi, Rhymes in the Flow: How Rappers Flip the Beat, page 256. From the entry mumble rap
  • I am indebted to Markey’s staff for this insight into phrasal formation, but in the language mavenhood, you do not pay “cash for coinage.”2009 August 30, William Safire, “Clunkers”, in New York Times. From the entry mavenhood
  • Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb and a primary, invariable adverb, the latter including the heads of reduced prepositional phrases but excluding adpreps.2000, Claudia Claridge, Multi-word Verbs in Early Modern English: A Corpus-based Study. From the entry adprep

Meaning of phrasal

  1. adjective Relating to, or used in the manner of, a phrase.
  2. adjective Consisting of multiple words, but behaving as a single part of speech.
  3. noun A grammatical construct that consists of multiple words, but behaves as a single part of speech.

Full definition of phrasal

Questions about phrasal in a sentence

How do you use phrasal in a sentence?
Phrasal is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Should we classify "make up" as an idiom or as a phrasal verb?”
What is a short sentence with phrasal?
“"Break-in" is the phrasal noun from "break in"”
What does phrasal mean?
Phrasal means relating to, or used in the manner of, a phrase.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phrasal (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use phrasal in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/phrasal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.