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Paraphrase (IPA: //) is restatement of a text or passage, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 "paraphrasis" from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 para phraseïn, meaning "additional manner of expression". Note that the act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."

A paraphrase typically explains or clarifies the text that is being paraphrased. For example, "The signal was red" might be paraphrased as "The train was not allowed to proceed." When accompanying the original statement, a paraphrase is usually introduced with a verbum dicendi
Verbum dicendi

A verbum dicendi is a word that expresses speech or introduces a quotation, such as "say", "utter", "ask" or "mumble". Verba dicendi may grammaticalization into quotatives....
 — a declaratory expression to signal the transition to the paraphrase.






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Paraphrase (IPA: //) is restatement of a text or passage, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 "paraphrasis" from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 para phraseïn, meaning "additional manner of expression". Note that the act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."

A paraphrase typically explains or clarifies the text that is being paraphrased. For example, "The signal was red" might be paraphrased as "The train was not allowed to proceed." When accompanying the original statement, a paraphrase is usually introduced with a verbum dicendi
Verbum dicendi

A verbum dicendi is a word that expresses speech or introduces a quotation, such as "say", "utter", "ask" or "mumble". Verba dicendi may grammaticalization into quotatives....
 — a declaratory expression to signal the transition to the paraphrase. For example, in "The signal was red, that is, the train was not allowed to proceed," the "that is" signals the paraphrase that follows.

A paraphrase need not accompany a direct quotation
Quotation

A quotation is the repetition of one expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed to its original source....
, but when this is so, the paraphrase typically serves to put the source's statement into perspective or to clarify the context in which it appeared. A paraphrase is typically more detailed than a summary
Summary

A summary or recap is a shortened version of the original. The main purpose of such a simplification is to highlight the major points from the genuine subject, e.g....
.

One feature of a paraphrase is that it preserves the essential meaning
Meaning (linguistics)

Linguistic strings can be made up of phenomena such as words, phrases, and sentences, each of which has a different kind of meaning. Individual words, such as the word "bachelor", refer to some abstract concept....
 of the material being paraphrased. Thus, the (intentional or otherwise) reinterpretation of a source to infer a meaning that is not explicitly evident in the source itself qualifies as "original research
Original research

Original research is research that is not exclusively based on a summary, review or synthesis of earlier publications on the subject of research....
," and not as paraphrase.

Unlike a metaphrase, which represents a "formal equivalent" of the source, a paraphrase represents a "dynamic equivalent" thereof. While a metaphrase attempts to translate a text literally, a paraphrase conveys the essential thought expressed in a source text — if necessary, at the expense of literal
Literal

Literal may refer to:*Literal and figurative language, taken in a non-figurative sense.*Literal translation, the close adherence to the forms of a source language text....
ity. For details, see "Dynamic and formal equivalence
Dynamic and formal equivalence

Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence are two approaches to translation. The dynamic attempts to convey the thought expressed in a source text , while formal attempts to render the text word-for-word ....
."