paraphrased

IPA/ˈpær.ə.freɪz/
IPA/ˈper.ə.freɪz/

paraphrased — verb

1. past tense and past participle of paraphrase: said or wrote what someone else ha

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

past tense and past participle of paraphrase: said or wrote what someone else had said or written, but used your own words to make the meaning shorter, clearer, or easier to understand.

Example

Lukas paraphrased the long quote from the speech into one short sentence for his classmates.

paraphrased + [original text] + into + [shorter version]

In her essay, Beatrix paraphrased two paragraphs from the report and cited the author.

academic register: paraphrased + cited the source

Common collocations
  • loosely paraphrased
  • famously paraphrased
  • paraphrased from
  • paraphrased in [language]
Synonyms
  • rephrased

    near-identical; rephrased is slightly more general and can apply to a single phrase as well as a passage

  • reworded

    everyday register; emphasises changing the wording without necessarily shortening

  • summarised

    implies condensing; paraphrasing keeps the same length and detail

Antonyms
  • quoted

    reproduces the exact original words

  • transcribed

    writes down the original words verbatim

Grammar Patterns

paraphrased + [text/quote/statement]

be paraphrased from [source]

Usage Note

Frequently passive ('the report was paraphrased by ...') in academic and journalistic writing. Object is usually a piece of text, a quote, or a statement — not a single word.

Common Mistakes

Sumin paraphrased the word "happy".
Sumin paraphrased the sentence about feeling happy.
paraphrase takes a whole sentence, quote, or passage, not a single word.
Christopher paraphrased the article word for word.
Christopher quoted the article word for word.
paraphrase means restating in DIFFERENT words; copying exactly is quoting.

paraphrased — adjective

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All five describe what you do with someone else's words, but they differ in how much you change. 'Paraphrased' restates a passage in your own words while keeping roughly the same length and most of the detail — common in school essays and news reports. 'Rephrased' and 'reworded' are everyday alternatives; both can apply to a single sentence and emphasise word-choice changes more than restructuring. 'Summarised' goes further: it condenses, so the new version is shorter and may drop minor points. 'Quoted', by contrast, keeps the original wording exactly. So a student who paraphrased an article changes the words; one who summarised it also makes it shorter; one who quoted it reproduces the exact sentences.

paraphrased ↗rephrasedreworded ↗summarised ↗quoted ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • paraphrased version
  • paraphrased quote
  • paraphrased account
  • paraphrased summary

Adverbs

  • loosely paraphrased
  • famously paraphrased
  • freely paraphrased
  • roughly paraphrased

Phrases

  • as paraphrased above
  • to be paraphrased

Prepositions

  • paraphrased from
  • paraphrased in (a language)
  • paraphrased by

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

'Paraphrased' is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'paraphrase', formed by adding the regular '-ed' ending. The base word reached English in the late 1500s through French 'paraphrase', which came from Latin 'paraphrasis' and ultimately Greek 'paraphrazein', meaning roughly 'to tell alongside'. The Greek prefix 'para-' ('beside, alongside') and 'phrazein' ('to point out, declare') together gave the sense of putting an idea next to its original in fresh words — the meaning that still defines 'paraphrased' today.