How to Find a Specific Phrase or Browse by Category on Phrase Finder

To look up a specific phrase on Phrase Finder (phrases.org.uk), type it into the site's search box on the homepage and open the matching entry; to explore instead of search, use the "By section" links, which split the collection into Meanings (2,330 entries), Idioms (363), Phrase thesaurus (10,636), Famous last words (35), and Quotes (10). Search works best when you already know the wording; the sections and thesaurus work best when you only know a word or a rough idea.

Searching for a phrase you already know

1. Go to phrases.org.uk. The search field sits on the homepage under the heading "The Phrase Finder."
2. Enter the phrase as you remember it — for example, saved by the bell or don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
3. Open the result. Each entry tells you what the phrase means, where it came from, and how it has been used, per the site's own description: "we'll tell you what it means, where it came from, and how it's been used."
4. If nothing matches, try a distinctive word from the phrase rather than the whole thing, or switch to the thesaurus (below).

The homepage also lists Popular searches — currently including heavens to murgatroyd, revenge is a dish best served cold, dressed to the nines, happy as larry, katy bar the door, the law is an ass, and saved by the bell — which is a fast way to reach common entries without typing.

If you don't know the exact wording

Use the Phrase thesaurus (10,636 entries). It organizes phrases "by the words that make them up," so you can find expressions by their pieces — useful when you remember one word ("clam," "nine") but not the full saying. This is the section to reach for when search returns nothing.

Browsing by section

Each section has its own "Open…" link on the homepage under By section.

Other entry points on the site

• Meaning of the day — a rotating featured entry. The current example is All present and correct, defined as "Everything, or everyone, is accounted for," with a link to the full origin. Good for browsing without a target.
• Guess the phrase — a Wheel-of-Fortune-style game drawn from the dictionary; you pick letters to uncover a saying. Useful for testing recognition rather than looking something up.
• From our readers — 155 published notes that correct and extend existing entries. Reader contributions add citations the main entry may lack; one note, for instance, traces "no love lost" back to 1585 in a work by Peter Lukacs, and another cites the Dictionary of American Regional English referencing Overland Monthly in 1883. Check these when you need a deeper or disputed origin.

How much to trust an entry

Phrase Finder states it is cited as a reference by Wikipedia, The New York Times, the BBC, and 35 other trusted sources, with 704 live citations across 480 of its meanings (verified via Ahrefs). The site reports 180 meanings cited by Wikipedia, 61 by the BBC, and smaller counts for The Atlantic, TIME, NASA, Smithsonian Magazine, and JSTOR. Established in 1997 and researched and written by Gary Martin, it is a long-running reference rather than an anonymous aggregator — but for academic work, follow the citations it provides back to the original sources.

Common snags

• Search returns nothing: the site indexes phrases, not arbitrary sentences. Reduce your query to the phrase itself or a distinctive word, then try the thesaurus.
• You only half-remember it: start from the thesaurus or the popular-searches list rather than guessing full wording.
• You need a citation: open the entry's origin section and the reader notes, which often supply the dated source the summary compresses.