big idea

noun

Informal.

1. any plan or proposal that is grandiose, impractical, and usually unsolicited.

   You're always coming around here with your big ideas.

2. purpose; intention; aim.

   What's the big idea of shouting at me?

Word History and Origins

Origin of big idea¹

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25

Example Sentences

But the body, the return to something purely sensorial, is Laxe’s big idea.

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The big idea, as with the Brixham fishermen's clinic, is to better tailor health services to local communities, and offer people more checks and tests to stop them falling sick in the first place.

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“This is a really big idea that makes a lot of sense,” she said.

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“This is a really big idea that makes a lot of sense,” said Maggie Coulter, senior attorney with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

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And that means that the patriotic defense of Iran isn’t a passing phase, produced under the duress of bombs, but the default position, the big idea that holds Iran together, hardened over the last two centuries of Iranian history and the trauma of the loss of territory and dignity to outside powers, including the Russians, the British and the Americans.

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Related Words

• approach 
• attention 
• attitude 
• awareness 
• concept 
• consciousness 
• feeling 
• image 
• impression 
• judgment 
• knowledge 
• notion 
• opinion 
• recognition 
• sense 
• taste 
• thought 
• viewpoint