Why are idioms hard even for strong readers?

Because the words are all familiar and the meaning is somewhere else. A reader who decodes perfectly can still get chasing her tail completely wrong, which is why context practice matters more than a list.

How many idioms are there in English?

Thousands, and nobody needs all of them. What helps is the habit: notice that a phrase does not add up literally, then read around it for the meaning.

How is an idiom different from a proverb?

An idiom is a phrase you drop into a sentence. A proverb is a whole sentence that gives advice. Throw in the towel is an idiom; do not put all your eggs in one basket is a proverb.

7th grade idioms

7th grade idioms worksheets

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning you cannot work out from the words in it. Seventh grade idioms come from news writing and novels rather than the playground, and the sentence around each one carries the context a reader uses to pin it down.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.7.5.a.

Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of sentences you'll fix

Choose the idiom that fits the sentence, and write it on the line.

Naming the starters before tryouts was (jumping the gun / playing hardball / running in circles).
Fixed: Naming the starters before tryouts was jumping the gun.
The council’s promise to rebuild in a year was (a close call / a slap on the wrist / a tall order).
The treaty’s weakest clause came back (into fashion / to haunt them / to light) a decade later.

Every print pulls a new set of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different mix.

What's on a 7th grade sheet

7th grade sheets draw from 40 sentences, 8 to a page. None of these sentences are on 6th grade sheets.

A few of the sentences, as the answer key corrects them:

Our principal told the two clubs to bury the hatchet before the fair.
Grace and her partner finally saw eye to eye on the topic.
Knowing the trees would take twenty years to grow, the council decided to take the long view on the garden plan.

Fix it. Choose the idiom that fits the sentence, and write it on the line. 8 sentences to fix per page.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

By seventh grade the useful question is not what does this mean but how did you know. Ask your student to point at the words in the sentence that gave it away, because that is the strategy that transfers to the next idiom, and there is always a next idiom. This is also the page where English learners in a class need the most explicit teaching, since an idiom is exactly the thing that fluent grammar will not help with.

Watch for: Idioms cannot be figured out letter by letter; they are learned as whole phrases, like vocabulary with a wink. The context sentence always carries the real meaning. Kids learning English deserve extra patience here: idioms are the least fair part of the language, and collecting them is the only route.

Common questions about 7th grade idioms

Why are idioms hard even for strong readers?: Because the words are all familiar and the meaning is somewhere else. A reader who decodes perfectly can still get chasing her tail completely wrong, which is why context practice matters more than a list.
How many idioms are there in English?: Thousands, and nobody needs all of them. What helps is the habit: notice that a phrase does not add up literally, then read around it for the meaning.
How is an idiom different from a proverb?: An idiom is a phrase you drop into a sentence. A proverb is a whole sentence that gives advice. Throw in the towel is an idiom; do not put all your eggs in one basket is a proverb.

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Aligned to Common Core L.7.5.a. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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