A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Phrase
PHRASE is one of the smallest items in the divisions which distinguish the form of a musical work. Where there are distinct portions marked off by closes like full stops, and half closes like stops of less emphasis (as often happens in Airs, Tunes, Themes, etc.), the complete divisions are generally called periods, and the lesser divisions phrases. The word is not and can hardly be used with much exactness and uniformity, for sometimes a phrase may be all, as it were, contained in one breath, and sometimes subordinate divisions may be very clearly marked. See Phrasing.
[ C. H. H. P. ]