Understanding Idioms
This worksheet helps 5th-grade students understand and identify common idioms, their literal meanings, and their figurative meanings.
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Understanding Idioms
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Read each question carefully and follow the instructions. This worksheet will help you understand common idioms and their meanings.
Idioms are phrases or expressions where the meaning isn't obvious from the individual words. For example, if someone says it's "raining cats and dogs," they don't mean animals are falling from the sky! They mean it's raining very heavily. Understanding idioms is important because they are used a lot in everyday conversation and writing.
1. Which of the following sentences contains an idiom?
The cat sat on the mat.
She spilled the beans about the surprise party.
He ate a delicious apple pie.
The birds sang a beautiful song.
2. What is the idiom in the sentence: "Don't cry over spilled milk."
Don't cry
spilled milk
cry over spilled milk
Don't
Complete each sentence with the correct meaning of the idiom.
3. If you say someone is "pulling your leg," it means they are .
4. When something costs "an arm and a leg," it means it is .
5. To "hit the books" means to .
Match each idiom on the left with its correct meaning on the right.
6. Break a leg!
a. To be very nervous
7. Butterflies in my stomach
b. Good luck!
8. Under the weather
c. To feel sick
9. Bite your tongue
d. To stop yourself from saying something
10. Write a sentence using the idiom "cat got your tongue?" Explain what the idiom means in your sentence.
11. Imagine your friend is feeling sad about a small problem. You want to tell them not to worry too much. Which idiom would you use, and what does it mean?
12. The idiom "to spill the beans" literally means to accidentally knock over a container of beans.
True
False