idiom

1. 1.

   a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language

   Synonymsparlance

   Broaderformulation
2. 2.

   the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

   “the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English”

   “he has a strong German accent”

   “it has been said that a language is a dialect with an army and navy”

   Synonymsdialectaccent

   Broadernon-standard speech

   Narrowereye dialectpatois
3. 3.

   the style of a particular artist or school or movement

   “an imaginative orchestral idiom”

   Synonymsartistic style

   Broadermanner

   Narrowerbaroqueclassical styleorderrococoHigh RenaissancetreatmentneoclassicismclassicismRomanticism
4. 4.

   an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up

   Synonymsidiomatic expressionphrasal idiomset phrasephrase

   Broadersaying

   Narrowerruralism

Other forms of idiom

plural

idioms·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about idiom

What does idiom mean?

idiom means "a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in idiom?

idiom has 3 syllables: id-i-om. The stress falls on "id". In IPA it is /ˈɪdiəm/.

What is another word for idiom?

Close synonyms include parlance, dialect, accent, artistic style, idiomatic expression. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is idiom a common word?

idiom is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.