All Idioms
Bring home the bacon
To earn money to support a family.
Burn bridges
To eliminate any possibility of returning to a previous state.
Burn the candle at both ends
To exhaust oneself by doing too much work and staying up late.
Burn the midnight oil
To work or study late into the night.
Bury one's head in the sand
To refuse to face unpleasant facts or reality.
Bury the hatchet
To make peace or conclude a quarrel.
Butterflies in one's stomach
A feeling of nervous anticipation.
Call a spade a spade
To speak truth directly without euphemisms.
Call it a day
To stop working on something for the rest of the day.
Call the shots
To be the person who makes decisions.
Cash cow
A product or business that generates steady profit.
Castles in the air
Unrealistic plans or hopes that are unlikely to happen.
Cat got your tongue?
Said to someone who remains silent when expected to speak.
Catch someone red-handed
To catch someone in the act of doing something wrong.
Clear as day
Very easy to see or understand.
Clear the air
To remove tension or misunderstandings between people.
Cloud with a silver lining
An element of hope or secondary benefit in a bad situation.
Cold feet
Loss of courage right before a major decision.
Cold shoulder
An intentional display of coldness or disregard.
Cost a fortune
To be extremely expensive.
Cost an arm and a leg
To be extremely expensive.
Cross that bridge when you come to it
To deal with a problem only when it happens, not before.
Cross your fingers
To hope for good luck or a favorable outcome.
Cry over spilled milk
To waste time worrying about something that cannot be undone.
English Idioms: Meaning, Usage and Equivalents
English idioms are expressions whose meaning cannot always be understood from the individual words they contain. Their meaning often depends on context, usage, and the situation in which they appear. Learning an idiom therefore means learning not only what it means, but also how and when it is used.
Understanding English Idioms
Meaning depends on context
An idiom can have a clear meaning in one situation but sound unnatural or inappropriate in another. Context helps determine whether an expression is suitable, how formal or informal it is, and what exactly the speaker intends to convey.
For this reason, idioms are best learned together with examples rather than as isolated definitions.
Literal meaning vs. figurative meaning
The literal meaning of an idiom’s words is often different from its actual meaning. Spill the beans, for example, is not about spilling beans; it means to reveal a secret. Understanding this distinction is essential when learning idiomatic English.
English Idioms and Their Equivalents in Other Languages
Why idioms are rarely translated word for word
Idioms are closely connected to the way each language expresses ideas. A literal translation may preserve the individual words while losing the meaning or producing an expression that native speakers would never use.
A natural equivalent can use completely different imagery while expressing essentially the same idea. This is why translating an idiom often requires finding an expression with the same function and meaning rather than translating its words.
Equivalent does not always mean identical
Some idioms have close equivalents in another language: they may use similar imagery or have a comparable structure. Others share only the underlying meaning.
Akcento distinguishes between these cases rather than treating every equivalent as an exact match. The difference can be useful for understanding how languages express the same ideas in different ways.
How to Learn English Idioms Effectively
Idioms are easier to remember when learned in context. Pay attention to example sentences, the situations in which an expression is normally used, and whether it is formal, informal, humorous, old-fashioned, or specific to a particular context.
It is also useful to compare an English idiom with a natural equivalent in another language. The comparison can reveal both similarities and differences in the way languages express the same idea.
Explore the Idiom Collection
Browse the complete collection of English idioms by category or initial letter. Each entry includes the meaning, origin, example sentences, and natural equivalents in Russian, Spanish, and French.