We discuss a simple rephase-invariant parametrization of the Kobayashi-Maskawa mixing matrix V which easily generalizes to more than three generations and which we believe to be suitable as a phenomenological standard. Our independent parameters are the magnitudes Vi with i and the phase of plaquettes, VaVV), where j=i+1, =+1, =+1, and j. The detailed discussion includes consequences of unitarity constraints, modifications in cases of degenerate quark masses, and the relation of Jarlskogs invariant functions of mass matrices. We reexpress the CP-violation phenomenology of the K-K and B-B systems in this rephase-invariant formalism. We exhibit a fourth-generation scenario where the top-quark mass need not be large even in the presence of large Bd-Bd mixing.