English
idiom
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈɪdɪəm/
Noun

idiom

  1. A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, person, or group of people.
  2. A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context etc.
    • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, "The Other L-Word", Vanity Fair, 13 Jan 2010:
      Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of "like" has spread through the idiom of the young.
  3. An established expression whose meaning is not deducible from the literal meanings of its component words, often peculiar to a given language.
    • 2008, Patricia Hampl, “You’re History”, in Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May (editors), Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life, Minnesota Historical Society, ISBN 9780873516303, page 134 ↗:
      You’re history, we say […] . Surely it is an American idiom. Impossible to imagine a postwar European saying, “You’re history. . . . That’s history,” meaning fuhgeddaboudit, pal.
  4. An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style.
  5. (programming) A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.
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