IELTS Speaking Idioms Compilation of the Topic Inventions and Discoveries
08 September, 2023IELTS idioms
“Inventions and Discoveries” is a relatively new topic in the IELTS Speaking test. The task for this topic revolves around inventions that you think are useful for humanity. Let’s analyze this topic through the idioms provided below with azVocab!
| IDIOMS | MEANING | EXAMPLE |
| A fishing expedition | an attempt to discover the facts about something by collecting a lot of information, often secretly | The investigators’ request for the company’s accounts is simply a fishing expedition – they have no real evidence of wrongdoing. |
| Bells and whistles | special features that are added to a product or system to attract more buyers | Manufacturers still build luxury cars with all the bells and whistles. |
| Break (fresh/new) ground | to do or discover something new | This recovery technique breaks new ground. |
| Bring something to light | if someone brings something to light, they discover it or make it known publicly | These problems should have been brought to light much earlier. |
| Have a (good) nose for something | to be good at finding things of the stated type | As a reporter, he had a nose for a good story. |
| Necessity is the mother of invention | an expression that means that if you really need to do something, you will think of a way of doing it | A: “I needed to drain the washing machine to try and unblock it, so I used an old bike tube to funnel the water out the back door.” B: “Wow, necessity is the mother of invention, huh?” |
| On the ball | aware of any changes or developments and quick to react to them | We need someone who’s really on the ball to answer questions from the press. |
| This will go down in history | express the idea that you think it will be very important in the future | I think Virtual Reality (VR) will go down in history as the most important invention ever. |
| Pull the plug on somebody/something | to cancel someone’s plans, projects | The television company pulled the plug on the series after only five episodes. |
| Take the world by storm | to become very popular | Internet is taking the world by storm. |
| Turn something on its head | to innovate or alter something in an unexpected or unprecedented way | This invention is turning the way we do things on its head. |
| Trial and error | a way of achieving an aim or solving a problem by trying a number of different methods and learning from the mistakes that you make | There’s no instant way of finding a cure – it’s just a process of trial and error. |
| To be cutting edge | to be very advanced, innovative and leading the field (i.e. leading-edge) | I think that robot waiters are cutting-edge. They can take your order, bring your food and even make jokes. |
| The father of something | the inventor or creator of something | Alexander Graham Bell was the father of this terrific device. |
Above are some Idioms on the topic of Inventions and Discoveries. Refer to them for effective at-home test preparation and to achieve the targeted band score!
