• Words and phrases by language (65 C)

A

• Adages Categories: Phrases | Traditions | Rules of thumb (1 C, 66 P)

B

• Biblical phrases Categories: Phrases | Bible | Christian terms (4 C, 131 P)

E

• Environmental sayings (9 P)

G

• Greeting words and phrases (23 P)

L

• Lists of phrases (1 C, 16 P)

M

• Mottos (3 C, 56 P)

O

• Oaths Categories: Cultural conventions | Oral communication | Phrases (6 C, 32 P)

P

• Parting phrases (12 P)
• Philosophical phrases (2 C, 2 P)

P cont.

• Proverbs (3 C, 31 P)

Q

• Quotations (2 C, 34 P)

S

• Slogans (4 C, 40 P)

ρ

• Redirects from phrases (60 P)

• Phrase In grammar, a phrase is a group of words functioning as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence
• Noun phrase In grammar, a noun phrase is a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a set of modifiers

*

• Winged word

A

• A fortiori argument It denotes a proof of a claim by means of an already proved stronger claim. For example, if it is forbidden to ride a bike with an extra passenger, then it is also forbidden to ride a bike with fourteen extra passengers. Or, if one can lift a 100 lb object, then it follows that one can lift a 50 lb object
• A maiore ad minus
• A minore ad maius
• Acid test (gold)
• Addicted to oil
• The American people The phrase "the American people" is extensively used in political speeches in the United States. The phrase is also used with prominence by the United States Agency for International Development in their logo, self-advertising and activities. Citizens of the United States will identify themselves as American
• Amish taxi
• Anyone for tennis?
• Aphorism The word aphorism denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form
• Apologetic proverb
• Apparent death Many animals, such as sharks, beetles, snakes and the Virginia opossum, are capable of appearing to be dead to an observer, while otherwise alive. This could either be a reflex action, as in tonic immobility, or a defense mechanism for avoiding predators, as in thanatosis, which is probably adaptive, or "playing possum", which is more
• Art for art's sake "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendition of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, ''l'art pour l'art'', and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic",
• Ash heap of history The expression ash heap of history was coined by Leon Trotsky in response to the Mensheviks walking out of the Second Congress of Soviets, on October 25, 1917, thereby enabling the Bolsheviks to establish their dominance. Trotsky declared: "Go out where you belong—into the ash heap of history."

B

• Back to square one
• Black Week
• Bo jook
• Bread and circuses "Bread and circuses" (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for handouts and petty amusements that politicians use to gain popular support, instead of gaining it through sound policy. The phrase is invoked not only to criticize politicians, but also to criticize their supporters for giving up their civic duty

C

• Camarilla A camarilla is a group of courtiers or favourites which surround a king or ruler. Usually, they do not hold any office or have any official authority but influence their ruler behind the scenes. Consequently, they also escape having to bear responsibility for the effects of their advice. The term derives from the Spanish word, "camarilla"
• Centipede's dilemma
• Chatham House Rule The rule originated in June, 1927, at what is now best known as Chatham House with the aim of guaranteeing anonymity to those speaking within its walls in order that better international relations could be achieved. It is now used throughout the world as an aid to free discussion. The original rule was refined in October 1992 and again in 2002
• Cloud cuckoo land
• Cold feet (metaphor)

D

• Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

E

• E pur si muove!
• Eating one's own dog food To say that a company "eats its own dog food" means that it uses the products that it makes. For example, Microsoft emphasizes the use of its own software products inside the company . "Dogfooding" is a means of conveying the company's confidence in its own products
• The empire on which the sun never sets The phrase "The Empire on which the sun never sets" has been used, with variations, to describe global empires so large that at least part of their territory is always in daylight. It has been used mainly of the Spanish and British empires

F

• FYIFV
• Fire in the hole
• Flit The original product, launched in 1923 and mainly intended for killing flies and mosquitoes, was mineral oil based and manufactured by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey . Later marketed as "FLIT MLO", it has since been discontinued. A hand-operated device called a Flit gun was commonly often used to perform the spraying
• Forked tongue A forked tongue is a tongue split into two distinct ends at the tip; this is a feature common to many species of reptiles. Reptiles smell using the tip of their tongue, and a forked tongue allows them to sense from which direction a smell is coming
• Talk:Four flush

G

• Galápagos syndrome
• Glomar response
• Go West, young man
• Grub Street Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was the name of a street in London's impoverished Moorfields district. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the street was famous for its concentration of mediocre, impoverished 'hack writers', aspiring poets, and low-end publishers and booksellers, who existed on the margins of the journalistic and literary

H

• Hail Satan
• Hearts and Minds (Vietnam) Hearts and Minds was a euphemism for a campaign by the United States military during the Vietnam War, intended to win the popular support of the Vietnamese people

H cont.

• Heinz 57
• Hello world program A "Hello World" program is a computer program which prints out "Hello, world!" on a display device. It is used in many introductory tutorials for teaching a programming language. Such a program is typically one of the simplest programs possible in a computer language. Some are surprisingly complex, especially in some graphical
• Hello, sailor
• Hold come what may
• Homeric nod
• Humanitarian bombing

I

• I come in peace
• Ipso Facto Selecto
• It girl An It girl or It-girl is a charming, sexy young woman who receives intense media coverage unrelated or disproportional to personal achievements. The reign of an "It girl" is usually temporary; some of the rising It girls will either become fully-fledged celebrities or their popularity will fade. The term "It boy", much less

J

• Jack Robinson (mythical person) Because this article has content useful to Wikipedia's sister project Wiktionary, it has been transwikied there, and its dictionary counterpart can be found at either Wiktionary:Transwiki:Jack Robinson , Wiktionary:Jack Robinson (mythical person), or Wiktionary:jack Robinson (mythical person)
• Talk:Jack shit
• Just another Perl hacker

K

• Kidding on the square
• Klaatu barada nikto

L

• L'enfant terrible
• A language is a dialect with an army and navy "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is one of the most frequently used aphorisms in the discussion of the distinction between dialect and language. It points out the influence that political conditions can have over a community's perception of the status of a language or dialect. The aphorism is often incorrectly attributed
• Lies, damned lies, and statistics "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is part of a phrase attributed to the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, among others, and later popularized in the United States by, among others, Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." The statement refers to the persuasive power
• Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. These three aspects are listed among the "inalienable rights" of man
• Line in the sand (phrase)
• List of pangrams
• Little Eichmanns
• The love that dare not speak its name

M

• Mad as a hatter
• Mater si, magistra no
• Memory hole
• Mile high club
• Mind over matter Mind over matter was Mao Zedong's idea that rural peasants could be "proletarianized" so they could lead the revolution and China could move from feudalism to socialism. It departs from Leninism in that the revolutionaries are peasants, instead of the urban proletariat
• Money for jam
• More Irish than the Irish themselves
• Mother insult

N

• Nation of shopkeepers "A Nation of Shopkeepers" is a disparaging remark supposedly used by Napoleon to describe the United Kingdom as unfit for war against France. The phrase was not, however, original. Napoleon could have found it in The Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith, who wrote:
• Nattering nabobs of negativism
• North Briton
• Nur für Deutsche

O

• Oxymoron An oxymoron (plural oxymora or, more often, oxymorons) ("sharply dull" in Greek) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. They appear in a range of contexts, from inadvertent errors such as extremely average, to deliberate puns like same difference, to literary oxymorons that have been carefully crafted to

P

• Pangram A pangram , or holoalphabetic sentence, is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Pangrams are used to display typefaces and test equipment. For example, the pangram The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog was utilized by Western Union to test Telex/TWX data communication equipment for accuracy and reliability[citation
• Pay to Play
• Perfidious Albion
• Plastic Paddy Plastic Paddy is an often pejorative term to describe non-Irish people who harbour a nostalgic claim of Irishness due to having some degree of Irish heritage. The term is also applied to Irish-themed pubs in countries outside of Ireland — especially if those pubs feature the most stereotypical characteristics of Irish culture, and do not
• Playing doctor
• Polish parliament (expression)

P cont.

• A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People
• Proverbial phrase
• Prêtre Martin

Q

• Question Authority

R

• Rip-off Britain Rip-off Britain is an expression coined by the tabloid press in the late 1990s to describe some products and services costing significantly more in the United Kingdom than in other places, especially the United States and other member states of the European Union. Such complaints are particularly prevalent in the mass media when the pound sterling
• Rome Rule

S

• Saying
• Schadenfreude Schadenfreude Audio (US) (help·info) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, including Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.[which?]
• Selling coal to Newcastle
• Separated at birth
• Shooting fish in a barrel
• Slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish and Irish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the visual to the chanted and the vulgar. Often
• Smart alec
• So help me God
• Stage Irish A stage Irishman is a stereotype of Irishpeople once common in plays. Although some say that the term originates in the 17th century, Captain Macmorris in Henry V has been claimed to be the first. The line "What ish my nation?" is used to portray the character as both drunk and at least unreliable, potentially capable of treason
• Stapp's Ironical Paradox
• Swampland in Florida Swampland in Florida refers to decades-old but still recurring real estate scams involving swamp lands misrepresented as being possible to develop, or "buildable". These scams became widely known and now also have meaning as a common figure of speech

T

• Tagline A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product. Some taglines are successful enough to warrant inclusion in popular culture
• Tautogram
• Teachable moment
• Telephone hook
• Tell it to the Marines (saying)
• Ten thousand years The use of the phrase ten thousand years in various East Asian languages originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the Emperor, and is typically translated as "long live" in English. Due to the political and cultural influence of China in the area, and in particular of the Chinese language, cognates with
• Teribus ye teri odin
• The Thin Red Line
• The three Rs
• Throw under the bus
• Tre Pol and Pen
• Trente Glorieuses Les Trente Glorieuses refers to the thirty years from 1945-1975 following the end of the Second World War in 1945 in France. The name was first used by the French demographer Jean Fourastié. It is derived from Les Trois Glorieuses (Three Glorious Days), the three days of revolution on 27–29 July 1830 in France
• The two Spains

W

• War among the people
• Wardrobe malfunction A wardrobe malfunction is an instance of accidental indecent exposure of intimate parts. It is different from flashing, which implies a deliberate exposure. There has been a long history of such malfunction, though the term itself was coined in the 2000s.[citation needed]
• Weasel word Weasel words is an informal term for words that are ambiguous and not supported by facts. They are typically used to create an illusion of clear, direct communication. Weasel words are usually expressed with deliberate imprecision with the intention to mislead the listeners or readers into believing statements for which sources are not readily
• West Brit
• White van man "White van man" is a usually pejorative stereotype used in the United Kingdom to describe drivers of light commercial vehicles, such as the Ford Transit. Such vehicles are commonly painted white at the factory in order to facilitate easy sign-writing on the panelled sides and therefore white is a common colour for these vehicle on the
• Who shot J.R.?
• The whole nine yards
• A wigwam for a goose's bridle

Y

• Your Holiness