# idiom

/ˈɪdiəm/ (US) · /ˈɪdɪəm/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/idiom
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. figurative phrase

noun · CEFR B1

a group of words that has a special meaning which you cannot guess by looking at the words alone.

For teachers: a fixed phrase whose figurative meaning is not deducible from the literal definitions of its constituent parts.

- To 'kick the bucket' is a common English idiom that means to die.
- Learners often struggle with idioms because the literal translation of the words rarely provides a clue to the actual intended meaning.

### 2. style of expression

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic · Formal

the particular way that a group of people or a language expresses ideas.

For teachers: the characteristic mode of expression or linguistic style peculiar to a specific language, region, or group.

- The poet wrote in the local idiom of the mountain villages.
- The author successfully captured the legal idiom of the nineteenth century, making the courtroom scenes feel authentic to the period.

### 3. artistic or musical style

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

a style or way of doing something in art, music, or architecture.

For teachers: a distinct style or character of expression within a specific artistic, musical, or architectural movement.

- The composer moved away from classical music and began writing in a jazz idiom.
- While the building uses modern materials, its design remains firmly rooted in the neoclassical idiom of the surrounding district.

### 4. programming style

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

the natural or standard way to write code in a specific programming language.

For teachers: a standard way of performing a common task in a specific programming language that is considered natural by experienced developers.

- Using a list comprehension is the preferred idiom for this task in Python.
- The developer refactored the legacy code to better follow modern C++ idioms, significantly improving both readability and performance.

Usage: Often used in the adjective form 'idiomatic' to describe clean, standard code.

## Examples

- The programmer used a common idiom to loop through the array.
- In functional programming, the map-reduce idiom is often used to process large datasets efficiently.
- While the syntax of the language is simple, the idioms required to write performant code are complex and often require years of experience to master.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.