English-language idioms

English grammar
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An idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest. For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context. An idiom is not to be confused with other figures of speech such as a metaphor, which invokes an image by use of implicit comparisons (e.g., "the man of steel" ); a simile, which invokes an image by use of explicit comparisons (e.g., "faster than a speeding bullet"); and hyperbole, which exaggerates an image beyond truthfulness (e.g., like "missed by a mile" ). Idioms are also not to be confused with proverbs, which are simple sayings that express a truth based on common sense or practical experience.

An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words.^[1][2] In another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements.^[3] In idioms, usually English learners would have a hard time understanding the real meaning if they did not have an English idioms dictionary.^[4] English has thousands of idioms.^[5] Most of English idioms are informal.^[6]

Visit Wiktionary's Category for over eight thousand idioms.

Notable idioms in English

See also

• List of 19th-century English-language idioms
• Siamese twins (linguistics)
• Wiktionary:Appendix:English idioms
• idiom
• Cliché

References

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