Figure It Out

You are shown a set of idioms and a set of meanings. Connect each expression to what it actually signifies, resisting the decoy definitions that take the phrase at face value.

• Click an idiom, then click the meaning it stands for (or vice-versa)
• Avoid the literal-reading traps mixed in among the options
• Pair them all correctly to clear the round
• Faster, cleaner rounds earn more

• Desktop: click an idiom then click a meaning to link them
• Phone & tablet: tap an idiom then tap its meaning

• Daily: a shared seeded set of idioms ranked globally
• Practice: fresh idioms each round across Easy, Medium and Hard

• Lock in the idioms you already know to narrow the choices for the unfamiliar ones
• The most literal-sounding definition is usually the trap, not the answer
• Think about the situation where you'd actually say the phrase to find its real sense

Figure It Out builds figurative-language skills by matching idioms to their meanings, opening up the non-literal side of English.

• Skills: idioms, figurative language, vocabulary, interpretation
• Best for: roughly grades 4–9 (ages 9–15)
• For parents & teachers: makes idioms, often baffling to learners, click.

Matching an idiom to what it actually signifies, against decoys that take it literally, is the definitional problem of idiom: a phrase whose meaning is not derivable from its parts.

Making the literal reading the trap is the original design.

That is precisely where idioms defeat learners and machines alike. Kick the bucket is perfectly comprehensible word by word and means something unrelated, so the literal reading is always available and always wrong — which is why idiom has to be learned as vocabulary rather than parsed.

Figure It Out is an original, free browser game that builds figurative-language skills by matching idioms to their meanings. Play instantly with nothing to install.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.