Is the group of words in bold a phrase or a clause? The chef prepared the meringue, a common dessert topping for citrus custards, whipping eggs until stiff peaks formed.

In the sentence provided, the bolded group of words is "whipping eggs until stiff peaks formed." To determine whether this is a phrase or a clause, we need to analyze its structure: - A **phrase** is a group of words that does not contain a subject-verb pair and does not express a complete thought. - A **clause** is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb. It can be independent (expressing a complete thought) or dependent (not expressing a complete thought). In "whipping eggs until stiff peaks formed": - "whipping" serves as a gerund (verb form acting as a noun), and "eggs" is the object of the gerund. - "until stiff peaks formed" is a dependent clause, as it contains a subject ("peaks") and a verb ("formed"). Since the entire bolded group contains a gerund phrase ("whipping eggs") followed by a dependent clause ("until stiff peaks formed"), it is best classified as a **clause** because it includes a verb and expresses a relationship of time or condition. Thus, the bolded group of words is a **clause**.