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An idiom is a phrase or expression that usually presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase. Some phrases which become figurative idioms, however, do retain the phrase's literal meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. [ 1]
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Idiom (language structure) Idiom, also called idiomaticness or idiomaticity, is the syntactical, grammatical, or structural form peculiar to a language. [ 1] Idiom is the realized structure of a language, as opposed to possible but unrealized structures that could have developed to serve the same semantic functions but did not.
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning could not be readily deduced from the meaning of its individual words. The word comes from the Greek ἰδίωμα (idioma) – the distinctive style of a particular person. The traditional example is "kick the bucket" which is normally understood to mean dying. The extent to which a phrase is thought ...
The expression " the elephant in the room " (or " the elephant in the living room ") [ 2][ 3] is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is ...
Phraseme. A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, idiomatic phrase, multiword expression (in computational linguistics ), or idiom, [1] [2] [3] [citation needed] is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained [clarification needed] or restricted by linguistic ...
knock for six. Cricket To surprise or shock (someone). In cricket, a "six" results from a ball that is hit in the air and beyond the boundary of the field. It is the most valuable outcome for a batsman, being worth (as its name suggests) six runs from one delivery.
Flogging a dead horse. A man sits atop a dead horse in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The idiom "to beat a dead horse" originated from the fact that flogging a dead horse will not compel it to do useful work. Flogging a dead horse (or beating a dead horse in American English) is an idiom meaning that a particular effort is futile.