Rephrased

Rephrased is the form used to describe text that has been rewritten. In general, to rephrase means to express the same idea using different words or sentence structure; a rephrased sentence preserves the original meaning while altering wording. The term comes from the prefix re- meaning again and from phrase, referring to a unit of speech or expression.

Usage and purpose

Rephrasing is common in editing, writing, education, and content creation. It is used to clarify meaning, simplify complex wording, eliminate ambiguity, or adapt material for different audiences or reading levels. Rephrasing remains in the same language and does not imply translating into another language.

Methods and considerations

Typical rephrasing strategies include substituting synonyms, altering sentence order, changing voice (active to passive or vice versa), splitting or combining sentences, and adjusting emphasis. The goal is to preserve the original meaning, intent, and tone while improving readability. Ethical considerations include avoiding misrepresentation and, when necessary, citing the source to maintain accuracy and transparency.

Applications in technology

In natural language processing, paraphrase generation aims to produce rephrased variants of a given sentence. Techniques range from rule-based approaches to statistical methods and neural models, including transformer-based architectures. Evaluation often combines automatic metrics and human judgement to assess meaning preservation, fluency, and diversity of the rephrased outputs.

Examples

Original: The experiment showed significant results. Rephrased: The results of the experiment were significant. The rephrased sentence conveys the same information with different wording.

See also

Paraphrase, restatement, and rewording.