Academic Idioms
Although it is often assumed that idioms are too informal for use inacademic English, two studies have identified idioms which occur fairlyfrequently in spoken and written academic English. This page describes idiomsin academic English, giving information on what an idiom is, why academic idioms should be studied, as well as a list of academic idioms for spoken andwritten English from a recent study of idioms (Miller, 2019), giving first background to the creation of the list and finally the list itself.
What is an idiom?
For another lookat the same content, check out the video on YouTube (also available on Youku). There is a worksheet (with answers and teacher's notes) for this video.
An idiom is a fixed, well-established, multi-wordexpression, the meaning of which is not deducible from the individual words.The following are some examples of idioms in everyday (not academic)English.
Raining cats and dogs - raining very hard
Break a leg - said before a performance, meaning 'good luck'
Behind one's back - secretly
The following are some examples of idioms for academic English use (a complete list is given below).
On the other hand - from another point of view (showing contrast)
Bear in mind - think of something, especially as a warning
The bottom line - the main or essential point
Take on board - accept or deal with (a problem or idea)
Why study academic idioms?
Idioms are common in everyday spoken and written English. Although it isoften assumed that idioms are too informal for use in academic English,two studies (Simpson and Mendis, 2003, and Miller, 2019) have identified idioms which are used in academic contexts, morecommonly in spoken academic contexts though also in academic writing. InMiller's study, idioms in spoken academic texts, including repetitions,occurred with a frequency of 835 per million words, or close to 0.1%. Whilethis figure is not as high as, say, words in the Academic Word List (10%) or the Academic Collocations List (1.4%), productive knowledge of idioms will assiststudents in becoming part of the academic discourse community, while receptiveknowledge will aid them in understanding spoken or written texts.
Miller reports that idioms may sometimes be signposted by lecturers (e.g.via the phrase as it were) or writers (e.g. via the phrase as theysay or by use of quotation marks). However, these methods do not alwayssignal idiom use, do not help students to understand the meaning of idioms, andin fact add a layer of complexity to academic English study (in terms of what asit were and as they say mean and why quotation marks are used inthat way).
Academic Idioms List: background to the list
The list of academic idioms (below) comes from the study by Julia Miller (2019), which used two academic English corpuses: the British AcademicSpoken English (BASE) corpus for spoken texts (lectures and seminars), and theOxford Corpus of Academic English (OCAE) corpus for written texts. Only idiomswith a frequency of more than 1.2 per million words (pmw) in the BASE areincluded.
The range of idiom use is shown by the number of texts in which each idiomoccurs, as well as the number of faculties (i.e. disciplinary groups) itoccurs in. Miller's study used four such faculties, namely Social Sciences(which had the highest idiom use with 234 pmw), Arts and Humanities (which had191 idioms pmw), Life and Medical Sciences (183 pmw), and Physical Sciences(which had the least frequent use, 76 pmw).
Most idioms in the list occur in more than one faculty, meaning they aresuitable for study by all students of academic English. The most frequent idiomused in only one faculty, gold standard (24th most frequent idiom inspoken academic English and 10th most frequent in written academic English),was used only in the Life Sciences (medical articles).
Academic Idioms List: Written
The list below gives written academic idioms from the OCAE (OxfordCorpus of Academic English) corpus, listed in order of frequency. There are 38idioms in total. There is a separate version of 170 idioms for spoken academicEnglish (use the button above the table). Hyperlinks of definitions are includedfor some of the idioms.
Written idioms
| Number | Idiom | Spoken frequency per million words (BASE) | Written frequency per million words (OCAE) | Number of texts in which the idiom occurs | Number of faculties in which the idiom occurs |
| 1 | on the other hand | 64.11 | 88.12 | 30 | 4 |
| 2 | in (the) light of | 5.39 | 34.99 | 8 | 3 |
| 3 | on the one hand | 37.74 | 31.87 | 30 | 4 |
| 4 | on the other [hand] | 10.19 | 20.34 | 12 | 3 |
| 5 | in the hands of | 6.59 | 12.54 | 10 | 3 |
| 6 | bear in mind | 46.73 | 10.17 | 42 | 4 |
| 7 | in its own right | 5.99 | 9.27 | 10 | 4 |
| 8 | along the lines of | 6.59 | 9.24 | 9 | 3 |
| 9 | in the long run | 5.39 | 7.84 | 9 | 4 |
| 10 | gold standard | 5.39 | 6.66 | 6 | 1 |
| 11 | a step further/back | 7.19 | 6.21 | 12 | 4 |
| 12 | driving force | 5.39 | 6.21 | 8 | 4 |
| 13 | the balance of power | 10.78 | 6.20 | 8 | 2 |
| 14 | come into play | 5.39 | 4.26 | 8 | 3 |
| 15 | in the short run | 3.00 | 4.19 | 2 | 2 |
| 16 | last resort | 3.00 | 4.05 | 5 | 2 |
| 17 | rule of thumb | 1.20 | 2.98 | 2 | 2 |
| 18 | golden age | 3.00 | 2.96 | 3 | 2 |
| 19 | bad news | 5.39 | 2.75 | 8 | 4 |
| 20 | go hand in hand with | 3.59 | 2.68 | 5 | 3 |
| 21 | on one hand | 1.80 | 2.58 | 3 | 2 |
| 22 | on the face of it | 5.39 | 2.57 | 8 | 4 |
| 23 | the bottom line | 8.39 | 2.50 | 8 | 4 |
| 24 | in the early days | 3.59 | 2.33 | 5 | 4 |
| 25 | beg the question | 2.40 | 2.18 | 2 | 2 |
| 26 | from scratch | 3.59 | 1.86 | 6 | 3 |
| 27 | go without saying | 4.79 | 1.85 | 6 | 2 |
| 28 | trial and error | 4.79 | 1.85 | 5 | 3 |
| 29 | bridge the gap | 3.59 | 1.85 | 6 | 3 |
| 30 | get to grips with | 3.59 | 1.78 | 4 | 3 |
| 31 | a fair share | 1.20 | 1.55 | 2 | 1 |
| 32 | the high point | 2.40 | 1.52 | 4 | 2 |
| 33 | the whole story | 2.40 | 1.41 | 3 | 3 |
| 34 | at the end of the day | 14.98 | 1.36 | 13 | 4 |
| 35 | state of the art | 4.19 | 1.36 | 4 | 2 |
| 36 | behind the scenes | 2.40 | 1.36 | 3 | 2 |
| 37 | the big picture | 3.59 | 1.30 | 6 | 3 |
| 38 | across the board | 5.99 | 1.21 | 7 | 3 |
Spoken idioms
Number | Idiom | Spoken frequency per million words (BASE) | Written frequency per million words (OCAE) | Number of texts in which the idiom occurs | Number of faculties in which the idiom occurs |
1 | on the other hand | 64.11 | 88.12 | 30 | 4 |
2 | bear in mind | 46.73 | 10.17 | 42 | 4 |
3 | on the one hand | 37.74 | 31.87 | 30 | 4 |
4 | the balance of power | 10.78 | 6.20 | 8 | 2 |
5 | at the end of the day | 14.98 | 1.36 | 13 | 4 |
6 | on the other [hand] | 10.19 | 20.34 | 12 | 3 |
7 | the bottom line | 8.39 | 2.50 | 8 | 4 |
8 | take on board | 7.79 | 0.00 | 13 | 4 |
9 | by and large | 7.19 | 0.04 | 12 | 4 |
10 | a step further/back | 7.19 | 6.21 | 12 | 4 |
11 | take for granted | 7.19 | 0.01 | 9 | 3 |
12 | in the hands of | 6.59 | 12.54 | 10 | 3 |
13 | along the lines of | 6.59 | 9.24 | 9 | 3 |
14 | in its own right | 5.99 | 9.27 | 10 | 4 |
15 | across the board | 5.99 | 1.21 | 7 | 3 |
16 | at the back of one's mind | 5.99 | 0.30 | 4 | 2 |
17 | sit on the fence | 5.99 | 0.12 | 2 | 2 |
18 | in the long run | 5.39 | 7.84 | 9 | 4 |
19 | bad news | 5.39 | 2.75 | 8 | 4 |
20 | driving force | 5.39 | 6.21 | 8 | 4 |
21 | on the face of it | 5.39 | 2.57 | 8 | 4 |
22 | in (the) light of | 5.39 | 34.99 | 8 | 3 |
23 | come into play | 5.39 | 4.26 | 8 | 3 |
24 | gold standard | 5.39 | 6.66 | 6 | 1 |
25 | what on earth | 4.79 | 0.17 | 7 | 3 |
26 | go without saying | 4.79 | 1.85 | 6 | 2 |
27 | trial and error | 4.79 | 1.85 | 5 | 3 |
28 | down the line | 4.19 | 0.08 | 7 | 3 |
29 | over the top | 4.19 | 0.05 | 6 | 3 |
30 | state of the art | 4.19 | 1.36 | 4 | 2 |
31 | the man/woman in the street | 4.19 | 0.28 | 3 | 3 |
32 | stepping stone | 4.19 | 0.66 | 2 | 1 |
33 | from scratch | 3.59 | 1.86 | 6 | 3 |
34 | bridge the gap | 3.59 | 1.85 | 6 | 3 |
35 | the big picture | 3.59 | 1.30 | 6 | 3 |
36 | in the early days | 3.59 | 2.33 | 5 | 4 |
37 | get one's head (a) round | 3.59 | 0.02 | 5 | 4 |
38 | go hand in hand with | 3.59 | 2.68 | 5 | 3 |
39 | keep an eye on | 3.59 | 0.78 | 5 | 3 |
40 | hang on a minute | 3.59 | 0.04 | 5 | 2 |
41 | on the spot | 3.59 | 0.84 | 4 | 4 |
42 | get to grips with | 3.59 | 1.78 | 4 | 3 |
43 | go through the roof | 3.59 | 0.06 | 4 | 2 |
44 | full circle | 3.00 | 0.54 | 5 | 3 |
45 | that's another story | 3.00 | 0.27 | 5 | 3 |
46 | how on earth | 3.00 | 0.08 | 5 | 3 |
47 | cast one's mind back | 3.00 | 0.04 | 5 | 3 |
48 | last resort | 3.00 | 4.05 | 5 | 2 |
49 | the other side of the coin | 3.00 | 0.54 | 5 | 2 |
50 | ring a bell | 3.00 | 0.15 | 5 | 1 |
51 | good old days | 3.00 | 0.27 | 4 | 3 |
52 | grey area | 3.00 | 0.60 | 4 | 2 |
53 | out of the blue | 3.00 | 0.05 | 3 | 3 |
54 | golden age | 3.00 | 2.96 | 3 | 2 |
55 | touchy-feely | 3.00 | 0.05 | 3 | 1 |
56 | in the short run | 3.00 | 4.19 | 2 | 2 |
57 | spring to mind | 2.40 | 0.31 | 4 | 3 |
58 | on the right track | 2.40 | 0.28 | 4 | 3 |
59 | have a stab at | 2.40 | 0.25 | 4 | 3 |
60 | get the picture | 2.40 | 0.08 | 4 | 3 |
61 | the high point | 2.40 | 1.52 | 4 | 2 |
62 | it's early days | 2.40 | 0.01 | 4 | 2 |
63 | the whole story | 2.40 | 1.41 | 3 | 3 |
64 | do the job | 2.40 | 0.63 | 3 | 3 |
65 | move the goalposts | 2.40 | 0.08 | 3 | 3 |
66 | behind the scenes | 2.40 | 1.36 | 3 | 2 |
67 | in the pipeline | 2.40 | 0.31 | 3 | 2 |
68 | on the back burner | 2.40 | 0.11 | 3 | 2 |
69 | bog standard | 2.40 | 0.02 | 3 | 2 |
70 | out of one's hands | 2.40 | 0.00 | 3 | 2 |
71 | call the cavalry | 2.40 | 0.00 | 3 | 2 |
72 | beg the question | 2.40 | 2.18 | 2 | 2 |
73 | get something straight | 2.40 | 0.05 | 2 | 2 |
74 | play ball | 2.40 | 0.05 | 2 | 1 |
75 | boil down to | 1.80 | 1.13 | 3 | 3 |
76 | in store | 1.80 | 0.34 | 3 | 3 |
77 | make up one's own mind | 1.80 | 0.20 | 3 | 3 |
78 | have up one's sleeve | 1.80 | 0.12 | 3 | 3 |
79 | go down that route | 1.80 | 0.09 | 3 | 3 |
80 | get one's act together | 1.80 | 0.08 | 3 | 3 |
81 | on one hand | 1.80 | 2.58 | 3 | 2 |
82 | overall picture | 1.80 | 1.14 | 3 | 2 |
83 | golden rule | 1.80 | 1.05 | 3 | 2 |
84 | have a life of its own | 1.80 | 0.89 | 3 | 2 |
85 | turn something on its head | 1.80 | 0.76 | 3 | 2 |
86 | fall into place | 1.80 | 0.30 | 3 | 2 |
87 | so far so good | 1.80 | 0.23 | 3 | 2 |
88 | on one's hands | 1.80 | 0.11 | 3 | 2 |
89 | in the same boat | 1.80 | 0.09 | 3 | 2 |
90 | take home message | 1.80 | 0.11 | 3 | 1 |
91 | joe public | 1.80 | 0.04 | 3 | 1 |
92 | kicking and screaming | 1.80 | 0.02 | 3 | 1 |
93 | rule of thumb | 1.20 | 2.98 | 2 | 2 |
94 | hot spots | 1.80 | 0.94 | 2 | 2 |
95 | ring true | 1.80 | 0.30 | 2 | 2 |
96 | put your finger on | 1.80 | 0.24 | 2 | 2 |
97 | get a handle on | 1.80 | 0.21 | 2 | 2 |
98 | shut up shop | 1.80 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
99 | set something in stone | 1.80 | 0.12 | 2 | 1 |
100 | swings and roundabouts | 1.80 | 0.02 | 2 | 1 |
101 | go in one ear and out the other | 1.80 | 0.00 | 2 | 1 |
102 | in a nutshell | 1.20 | 1.17 | 2 | 2 |
103 | fall foul of | 1.20 | 1.15 | 2 | 2 |
104 | set the scene | 1.20 | 1.15 | 2 | 2 |
105 | have the upper hand | 1.20 | 0.88 | 2 | 2 |
106 | on the side | 1.20 | 0.84 | 2 | 2 |
107 | make up one's mind | 1.20 | 0.76 | 2 | 2 |
108 | fly in the face of | 1.20 | 0.71 | 2 | 2 |
109 | get carried away | 1.20 | 0.65 | 2 | 2 |
110 | moot point | 1.20 | 0.47 | 2 | 2 |
111 | someone's bread and butter | 1.20 | 0.38 | 2 | 2 |
112 | stand to reason | 1.20 | 0.38 | 2 | 2 |
113 | devil's advocate | 1.20 | 0.37 | 2 | 2 |
114 | get one's message across | 1.20 | 0.30 | 2 | 2 |
115 | deliver the goods | 1.20 | 0.23 | 2 | 2 |
116 | a bad press | 1.20 | 0.19 | 2 | 2 |
117 | the powers that be | 1.20 | 0.18 | 2 | 2 |
118 | set foot in | 1.20 | 0.14 | 2 | 2 |
119 | happily ever after | 1.20 | 0.11 | 2 | 2 |
120 | shift gears | 1.20 | 0.11 | 2 | 2 |
121 | get down to the nitty gritty | 1.20 | 0.09 | 2 | 2 |
122 | in one's sights | 1.20 | 0.08 | 2 | 2 |
123 | brain power | 1.20 | 0.07 | 2 | 2 |
124 | not to mince one's words | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 2 |
125 | throw somebody in at the deep end | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 2 |
126 | cover one's bases | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 2 |
127 | weird and wonderful | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 2 |
128 | cast an eye over | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 2 |
129 | above one's station | 1.20 | 0.05 | 2 | 2 |
130 | have a go | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
131 | in the same ballpark | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
132 | pat on the back | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
133 | sit on one's hands | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
134 | throw up one's hands | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
135 | watch this space | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 2 |
136 | go down the road of | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
137 | this that and the other | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
138 | get cracking | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
139 | give someone a shout | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
140 | have a crack at | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
141 | not to put too fine a point on it | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
142 | give the game away | 1.20 | 0.01 | 2 | 2 |
143 | beat/get the hell out of something | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
144 | get a move on | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
145 | get one's thoughts together | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
146 | hand on heart | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
147 | quote somebody on something | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
148 | put one's head above the parapet | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 2 |
149 | a fair share | 1.20 | 1.55 | 2 | 1 |
150 | to say the least | 1.20 | 1.10 | 2 | 1 |
151 | grass roots movement | 1.20 | 0.65 | 2 | 1 |
152 | pick and choose | 1.20 | 0.47 | 2 | 1 |
153 | sow seeds of thought | 1.20 | 0.37 | 2 | 1 |
154 | at loggerheads | 1.20 | 0.24 | 2 | 1 |
155 | drag one's feet | 1.20 | 0.21 | 2 | 1 |
156 | in the driving seat | 1.20 | 0.17 | 2 | 1 |
157 | go back to square one | 1.20 | 0.08 | 2 | 1 |
158 | set in tablets of stone | 1.20 | 0.07 | 2 | 1 |
159 | dear to one's heart | 1.20 | 0.06 | 2 | 1 |
160 | off the top of one's head | 1.20 | 0.05 | 2 | 1 |
161 | end of story | 1.20 | 0.05 | 2 | 1 |
162 | in a rut | 1.20 | 0.04 | 2 | 1 |
163 | tick the boxes | 1.20 | 0.04 | 2 | 1 |
164 | round robin | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 1 |
165 | dig one's heels in | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 1 |
166 | stretch one's legs | 1.20 | 0.02 | 2 | 1 |
167 | get someone on board | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 1 |
168 | on that note | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 1 |
169 | tail end Charlie | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 1 |
170 | jump up and down | 1.20 | 0.00 | 2 | 1 |
References
Miller, J. (2019) 'The bottom line: Are idioms used in English academicspeech and writing?', Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 43(2020) 100810. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100810.
Simpson, R., and Mendis, D. (2003) 'A corpus-based study of idioms inacademic speech', Tesol Quarterly, 37(3), 419e441. Available online at: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/90255/3588398.pdf?sequence=1.
