idiom

noun

id·​i·​om ˈi-dē-əm 

plural idioms

1

: an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be understood from the combined meanings of its elements (such as up in the air for "undecided") or in its grammatically atypical use of words (such as give way for "retreat")

Where there's a will, there's a way—as true as any idiom could be.

—The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

2

a

: the language peculiar to a people or to a district, community, class, or group : dialect

First, you had to translate from the American into the English or Australian idiom …

—John Lahr

… does not speak the idiom of the bourgeoise.

—Jennifer Wilson

Such clannishness is leading scholarly writing to … an increasingly rarefied and self-referential idiom.

—Nina Auerbach

b

: the syntactical, grammatical, or structural form peculiar to a language

3

: a style or form of artistic expression that is characteristic of an individual, a period or movement, or a medium or instrument

the modern jazz idiom

For him, the impact of a work of art was bound to an artist's discovery of his own idiom and vision of the world.

—Sarah Elizabeth Lewis

broadly : manner, style

a new culinary idiom

Did you know?

The Makeup of Idioms

If you had never heard someone say "We're on the same page," would you have understood that they weren't talking about a book? And the first time someone said he'd "ride shotgun", did you wonder where the gun was? A modern English-speaker knows thousands of idioms, and uses many every day. Idioms can be completely ordinary ("first off", "the other day", "make a point of", "What's up?") or more colorful ("asleep at the wheel", "bite the bullet", "knuckle sandwich"). A particular type of idiom, called a phrasal verb, consists of a verb followed by an adverb or preposition (or sometimes both); in make over, make out, and make up, for instance, notice how the meanings have nothing to do with the usual meanings of over, out, and up.

View more idiom examples, definitions, and origins

Synonyms of idiom

• phrase

Examples of idiom in a Sentence

She is a populist in politics, as she repeatedly makes clear for no very clear reason. Yet the idiom of the populace is not popular with her. —P. J. O'Rourke, New York Times Book Review, 9 Oct. 2005

And the prospect of recovering a nearly lost language, the idiom and scrappy slang of the postwar period … —Don DeLillo, New York Times Magazine, 7 Sept. 1997

We need to explicate the ways in which specific themes, fears, forms of consciousness, and class relationships are embedded in the use of Africanist idiom … —Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark, 1992

The expression “give way,” meaning “retreat,” is an idiom.

rock and roll and other musical idioms

a feature of modern jazz idiom

Recent Examples on the Web

Though the idiom of abuse has changed, the critics are as hostile as ever, while their targets react only with curious torpor. —David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025

Music unites the interconnecting stories in this saga and expands its passions, with a sumptuous score by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens that taps into a wide range of American styles, idioms and amalgams, even as the second act turns more dissonant. —Frank Rizzo, Variety, 17 Oct. 2025

The history of labor struggle, infused with religious idioms, is a source of identity and values evident in everything from union meetings in churches to prayers on picket lines. —The Conversation, 7 Oct. 2025

What began as an idiom of care—protecting vulnerable students—has been used to justify a spectacle of retribution. —Lula Konner, The New York Review of Books, 4 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French idiome, from Late Latin idioma individual peculiarity of language, from Greek idiōmat-, idiōma, from idiousthai to appropriate, from idios

First Known Use

1573, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Rhymes for idiom

• clostridium
• cranidium
• cymbidium
• iridium
• peridium
• presidium
• pygidium
• rubidium
• cryptosporidium

Kids Definition

idiom

noun

id·​i·​om ˈid-ē-əm 

1

: the choice of words and the way they are combined that is characteristic of a language

2

: an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but must be learned as a whole

the expression "give way," meaning "retreat," is an idiom

idiomatic

ˌid-ē-ə-ˈmat-ik

adjective

idiomatically

-i-k(ə-)lē

adverb