For traditional Presbyterian church songs see Paraphrases. Look up paraphrase in Wiktionary the free dictionary.

Paraphrase (pronounced /prfrez/) is restatement of a text or passages using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek para phrasen meaning "additional manner of expression". 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 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 does not need to accompany a direct quotation 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. One should add the source at the end of the sentence for example: When the light was red trains could not go (Wikipedia).

Paraphrase may attempt to preserve the essential meaning 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" 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 literality. For details see "Dynamic and formal equivalence."

The term is applied to the genre of Biblical paraphrases which were the most widely circulated versions of the Bible available in medieval Europe.1 Here the purpose was not to render an exact rendition of the meaning or the complete text but to present material from the Bible in a version that was theologically orthodox and not subject to heretical interpretation or in most cases to take from the Bible and present to a wide public material that was interesting entertaining and spiritually meaningful or simply to abridge the text.1

See also The etymology of "Translation" Notes a b James H. Morey "Peter Comestar Biblical Paraphrase and the Medieval Popular Bible" Speculum vol. 68 no. 1 Jan. 1993 pp. 6-35. External links Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words