Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

metaphrast

American  
[met-uh-frast] / ˈmɛt əˌfræst /

noun

  1. a person who translates or changes a literary work from one form to another, as prose into verse.

metaphrast British  
/ ˈmɛtəˌfræst /

noun

  1. a person who metaphrases, esp one who changes the form of a text, as by rendering verse into prose

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • metaphrastic adjective
  • metaphrastical adjective
  • metaphrastically adverb

Etymology

Origin of metaphrast

1600–10; Medieval Greek metaphrástēs one who translates, equivalent to *metaphrad-, base of metaphrázein to translate ( see meta-, phrase) + -tēs agent suffix

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.