Fraza

Fraza is a term used in several languages to denote a unit that expresses a broader idea, most commonly meaning a phrase or a fixed expression. In Polish, fraza can refer to any linguistic unit smaller than a sentence as well as established expressions, and it appears in discussions of grammar and style. In music, fraza refers to a melodic unit that conveys a complete musical idea, similar to a sentence in prose.

In linguistics, a phrase is a structural unit within a sentence that functions as a single syntactic constituent. Major types include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, and adjective phrases. Phrases have heads and dependents and are organized according to a phrase structure grammar. Examples include the noun phrase the quick brown fox or the prepositional phrase over the hill. Fixed expressions or idiomatic phrases, such as kick the bucket or a piece of cake, illustrate how fraza can combine lexical items into conventional meanings.

In music, a phrase is a short section of melody that presents a complete musical thought and typically ends with a cadence. Phrases vary in length but are often four bars long in common practice styles and can be grouped into larger units like periods and periods' subphrases to shape musical form.

Etymology generally links fraza to the word phrase found in many European languages, with roots traceable to Latin or Greek-derived terms via French. Related concepts include phrase (linguistics) and musical phrase.