Meanings and Origins

The meanings and origins of over 1,200 English sayings, phrases and idioms.

Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over how a saying or phrase originated or whether you just enjoy words, you'll probably find something here to interest you.

The Phrase Thesaurus

Are you a professional writer? If so, you may find that the Phrase Thesaurus could make your life easier.

This writers' resource spawns ideas for headlines, advertising copy, song lyrics, poetry etc. Journalists, advertising copywriters, songwriters, or anyone interested in creative writing in English, can benefit from this ideas generator.

find out more...

Bulletin Board

Have you a question on the meanings and origins of sayings or phrases? Use our Discussion Forum to ask the people who know. Go to the current forum to ask questions like "what's the origin of the phrase...", "what does this saying mean..."

There's also a searchable archive of more than 50,000 postings about sayings and phrases.

A Phrase A Week

Have newly researched origins of phrases and sayings e-mailed to you each week with our free Phrase A Week mailing list (join here).

You may also receive these updates each week via our news feed.

Search