The term
phrasal verb is commonly applied to two or three distinct but related constructions in English: a
verb and a
particle and/or a
preposition co-occur forming a single semantic unit. This semantic unit cannot be understood based upon the meanings of the individual parts in isolation, but rather it can be taken as a whole. In other words, the meaning is non-
compositional and thus unpredictable. Phrasal verbs that include a preposition are known as
prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs that include a particle are also known as
particle verbs. Additional alternative terms for
phrasal verb are
compound verb,
verb-adverb combination,
verb-particle construction,
two-part word/verb, and
three-part word/verb (depending on the number of particles), and
multi-word verb.