paraphrase
French, verb
paraphrase is spelled P-A-R-A-P-H-R-A-S-E (10 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written French, the 40,661st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Paraphrase is a French verb meaning “first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, paraphrasé is a different word: “past participle of paraphraser”.
What does paraphrase mean in English?
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of paraphraser
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Développement explicatif d’un texte. 2. Discours ou écrit verbeux et redondant.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of paraphrase
- paraphrasée feminine
- paraphrasés masculine plural
- paraphrasées feminine plural
- paraphrases plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to paraphrase
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is paraphrase in French?
paraphrase appears about once in every 2 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).