phrasing

Etymology

verb

1. present participle and gerund of phrase

noun

1. The way a statement is put together, particularly in matters of style and word choice.
   But for the Sir Walter disease, the character of the Southerner -- or Southron, according to Sir Walter's starchier way of phrasing it -- would be wholly modern, in place of modern and medieval mixed, and the South would be fully a generation further advanced than it is. 1870, Mark Twain, chapter 46, in Life on the Mississippi, archived from the original on 2014-08-11
2. (music) The way the musical phrases are put together in a composition or in its interpretation, with changes in tempo, volume, or emphasizing one or more instruments over others.