Most of the world’s languages have phrases or sentences that cannot be understood literally. Even if you know all the words in a phrase and understand all the grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning may still be elusive. A phrase or sentence of this type is said to be idiomatic. Many proverbs, informal phrases, and common sayings are idiomatic, and offer special problems to readers, writers, and language learners. This dictionary is a collection of the idiomatic phrases and sentences that occur frequently in American English.