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Definition of "metaphrase" []

  • A word-for-word translation. (noun)
  • To translate, especially literally. (verb-transitive)
  • To manipulate the wording of (a text), especially as a means of subtly altering the sense. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "metaphrase" in a sentence
  • "But most men, little recking what a small portion of the original they were reading, satisfied themselves with the Anglo French epitome and metaphrase."
  • "Sustaining these views by a few footnotes, I add (1) a literal rendering of my own, and then (2) a metaphrase of the same, bringing out the argument from the crabbed obstructions of the Latin text."
  • "Ben Jonson, whose translation of Horace's _Art of Poetry_ is cited by Dryden as an example of "metaphrase, or turning an author word by word and line by line from one language to another," [395] is perhaps largely responsible for the mistaken impression regarding the earlier translators."