How to Use paraphrase in a Sentence

paraphrase

1 of 2 noun
  • This is just a paraphrase of what he said, not an exact quote.
  • These lyrics do a lot of work, work that transcends paraphrase.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 30 Aug. 2022
  • But that was only a paraphrase of his own primer for audiences.
    — Robert D. McFadden, New York Times, 8 July 2023
  • That’s a gentle paraphrase of what was in this viewer’s letter.
    — James Barron, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2024
  • The fact-check flagged a misquotation that should have been rendered as a paraphrase.
    — Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2022
  • To paraphrase, the more uncertain the situation, the more one should hedge one’s bets.
    — Tariq Samad, IEEE Spectrum, 17 July 2025
  • To paraphrase, the split between goods and experiences is widening.
    — Jacques Ledbetter, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • Models paraphrase and summarize by design, so there's often no exact string for filters to catch.
    — Ofer Klein, Forbes.com, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Like Irving, Poe had read Biddle’s paraphrase closely.
    — Literary Hub, 21 Apr. 2026
  • This is reputedly a paraphrase of an assertion of Genghis Khan.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2011
  • Talks on a hostage deal, meanwhile, could be dragged out long enough for Hamas to rebuild its military, the paper’s paraphrase of the document said.
    — Gershom Gorenberg, The Atlantic, 25 Nov. 2024
  • And while that may be a rather poor paraphrase, the sentiment still sticks for why both fostering and adopting is so important to saving the lives of homeless pets.
    — The Republic, The Arizona Republic, 21 July 2023
  • That heading is a paraphrase of something Gertrude Stein said about the difference between poetry and prose.
    — New York Times, 15 July 2021
  • Similarly, if their paraphrase is so at odds with what McCabe said, why aren't Democrats making a bigger deal out of it?
    — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2018
  • That's a paraphrase of a line usually attributed to military strategist Sun-Tzu.
    — Damon Linker, The Week, 1 Mar. 2022
  • To share another paraphrase of Marous, data and how it is used creates the foundation of a strong financial relationship in today’s world.
    — Monica Hovsepian, Forbes, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Goldman’s three-word distillation turned out to be perhaps the greatest paraphrase in Hollywood history.
    — Washington Post, 9 June 2022
  • Rather than a paraphrase of the much earlier and much less certain quote of abolitionist minster, Theordore Parker.
    — Alexander Finlayson, Forbes, 7 Apr. 2021
  • What sets Grok apart from its competitors is its real-time access to X data, which the chatbot paraphrases and directly surfaces in a carousel interface.
    — Isabel Fraser, WIRED, 18 July 2024
  • The past, even so recent a past as 1979, a time in which a paraphrase of Lafferty’s story could still conceivably be written, is unsustainable.
    — Jonathan Lethem, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022
  • Those sayings included Wright’s paraphrase of some advice from Chicago author Nelson Algren.
    — Graydon Megan, chicagotribune.com, 10 Nov. 2019
  • So, has the internet replaced television to become, in a paraphrase of media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the medium and the message?
    — Stephen Pastis, Fortune, 6 July 2023
  • Such beliefs are belated, lapsed, overdue, like a book checked out from a library and then lost for decades; the story has moved indoors, the frontier has become one of recursion, quotation, paraphrase, allegory.
    — Jonathan Lethem, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022
  • Judicial opinions even sometimes just copy things from the briefs or closely paraphrase prior opinions without citation; in a field that prioritizes precedent over originality, that is not a sin.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 20 Jan. 2024
  • Some of the suspects try to minimize their actions with euphemisms or paraphrases; others do so with explanations that the prosecutors find utterly implausible.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2026
  • The latter is a paraphrase of Shelwyn Weston, a senior wealth manager at Goldman Sachs back in 1998.
    — John Tamny, Forbes, 5 Sep. 2024
  • This is a perfect paraphrase of the vision that Marcellin Berthelot was promulgating exactly 120 years earlier.
    — Richard Faulk, Discover Magazine, 4 June 2015
  • All were drawn together by a continuous colonnade, culminating at one end in Jefferson’s great rotunda, a paraphrase of the Roman Pantheon that served as the university library.
    — Michael J. Lewis, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2020
  • The third section is a paraphrase of archaeologist Howard Carter describing his experience in 1922 of peering through an opening to discover King Tut’s tomb.
    — A.j. Jacobs, WSJ, 23 Apr. 2022
  • First violinist Isaac Allen played the stratospheric hymn paraphrase in the final movement with appropriate reverence and glory, as cellist Alex Greenbaum sung out a slowly descending pattern.
    — Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Nov. 2023

paraphrase

2 of 2 verb
  • I'm paraphrasing, but he did say something like that.
  • To paraphrase the Times, all the lawsuits that are fit to be filed.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The western sky, to paraphrase the poet, did not burn and rave at close of day.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 4 Nov. 2023
  • To paraphrase a golf saying, dunk for show, defend and hit 3s for dough.
    — Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY, 12 Nov. 2021
  • To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, one wonders if there is a there there.
    — Mosi Reeves, Rolling Stone, 9 May 2022
  • But to paraphrase one of their own songs, welcome back, prog-rock friends, to the show that may never end.
    — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 28 Oct. 2021
  • To paraphrase a wise man, don’t be too stupid to keep moviegoers from having a good time.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 9 Mar. 2024
  • The heart knows things that the mind can’t explain, to paraphrase Pascal.
    — Kathy Caprino, Forbes, 4 June 2021
  • For Bolton, though, the show’s the thing, to paraphrase Hamlet.
    — ABC News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • On the long trails of my past, booze was self-care, the thing my mind needed, to paraphrase Parr.
    — Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 30 Dec. 2022
  • Yes, to paraphrase Tolstoy, all seasons are strange in their own strange ways, but this one?
    — Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press, 17 Apr. 2023
  • To paraphrase, on paper, the Utes are better than the Gators.
    — Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 Aug. 2022
  • To paraphrase John Adams, a free republic will be one of ideas, not of men.
    — The Editors, National Review, 21 Oct. 2021
  • Well, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, the angels will weep for them.
    — Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2021
  • Possibly, but to paraphrase Mark Twain, that’s not the way to bet.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2021
  • To paraphrase Dani Rojas, football is life (and maybe death, too).
    — Jake Coyle, Boston Herald, 19 Sep. 2025
  • To paraphrase a 1998 track from Pulp, that’s hardcore.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 13 May 2026
  • In the future, the reporters can be more selective with which quotes to use versus which quotes to paraphrase.
    — Dallas News, 2 May 2022
  • To paraphrase Yogi Berra, nobody wants to go to a club that’s too crowded.
    — Telis Demos, WSJ, 4 June 2021
  • To paraphrase from the song by Johnny Mercer, something’s gotta give.
    — Stephen Buck, STAT, 21 Nov. 2023
  • To paraphrase a passage from the Talmud, the long road is the shortest because the short roads lead nowhere.
    — James McKenna, Quartz, 14 Feb. 2023
  • To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, the county will pave this non-paradise to put up a parking lot.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2023
  • The trouble, to paraphrase Adam Phillips, is that strongmen tend to bring out the strongman in us all.
    — Emily Chamlee-Wright, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2026
  • The problem is that the future, to paraphrase a common saying, is like a foreign country.
    — Jake Angelo, Fortune, 28 Apr. 2026
  • The flavor of fish stock varies greatly because there are, to paraphrase the old saying, as many versions as there are fish in the sea.
    — Naomi Tomky, Saveur, 3 Jan. 2023
  • To paraphrase one of Winslow’s heroes, Elmore Leonard, the key is to cut the stuff no one will read.
    — Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2023
  • To paraphrase another quotation from Gertrude Stein, a snooze is a snooze is a snooze.
    — Peter Larsen, Oc Register, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The credit goes to the man in the arena, to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, not the critic.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021
  • To paraphrase the famous musical title, a funny thing happened on the way to the upfronts this year.
    — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 14 May 2026
  • Maybe, to paraphrase her late husband, Sasha just needs a partner to help straighten her out whenever she’s lost the plot.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 23 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'paraphrase.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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