Phrasing
Mutual synonyms
Both words in one sentence
- This language trope is most common to family fare: A character's spoken line contains no profanity whatsoever, but the tone and phrasing used by the actor is so obvious that the audience will hear the intended profanity just the same.
Source: Parenthetical Swearing -
Tomoya describing Megumi as a Plain Jane, and phrasing it in a negative tone, essentially calling her boring.
- The phrasing and their tone of voice causes Mikey to think that he's dead, but what they really meant was that they had lost him to evil, and he became their Big Bad.
Source: Evil Former Friend
Cite this Source
Tone and Phrasing. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/phrasing/tone
Phrasing & Tone. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/phrasing/tone>.
Tone or Phrasing. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/phrasing/tone.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "phrasing" and "tone" have occurred on timeline