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Explore Urdu idioms in Nastaliq with Roman transliteration, literal sense, meaning, usage sentences and a meaning quiz.
Urdu Muhavare Explorer is a browsable set of 30 Urdu idioms, each shown in Nastaliq with a Roman transliteration, the literal word-for-word sense, the meaning in Urdu and English, and a sentence that shows the idiom in real use. A muhavara is a phrase whose sense cannot be worked out from its words and which is inflected to fit its sentence, unlike a zarb-ul-misl, which is a complete proverb quoted as it stands. A seeded four-option quiz tests recall using distractors drawn from the same collection.
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Every idiom appears in Urdu script and in a Roman reading, so the script is never a barrier.
The word-for-word sense is listed separately from the idiomatic meaning, which is where learners usually go wrong.
Idioms are graded on usage, so each entry is shown inside a complete Urdu sentence with an English gloss.
A muhavara is a fixed idiomatic phrase whose meaning is not the sum of its words, and which changes form to fit the sentence — کان بھرنا becomes 'اس نے صاحب کے کان بھرے'. It is never a complete sentence on its own.
A zarb-ul-misl (ضرب المثل) is a complete proverb stating a general truth and is quoted without change, while a muhavara is a partial phrase that must be conjugated into the sentence. Exam questions usually ask for a muhavara to be used in a sentence and a zarb-ul-misl to be explained.
It means to hold out false hopes to mislead someone — literally 'to show green gardens'. It is typically used of agents, recruiters or politicians who promise something they cannot deliver.
Many are shared, because both draw on the same spoken base — عید کا چاند and لوہے کے چنے چبانا appear in both. Urdu also carries idioms with a stronger Persian and Arabic flavour, and the script and register differ, so the two lists overlap without being identical.