Abstract: A phrase discovery is a method of identifying sequences of terms in a database. First, a selection of one or more relevant sequences of terms, such as relevant text, is provided. Next, several shorter sequences of terms, such as phrases, are extracted from the provided relevant sequences of terms. The extracted sequences of terms are then reduced through a culling process. A gathering process then emphasizes the more relevant of the extracted and culled sequences of terms and de-emphasizes the more generic of the extracted and culled sequences of terms. The gathering process can also include iteratively retrieving additional selections of relevant sequences (e.g., text), extracting and culling additional sequences of terms (e.g., phrases), emphasizing and de-emphasizing extracted and culled sequences of terms and accumulating all gathered sequences of terms. The resulting gathered sequences of terms are then output.