bright idea

Idioms  

1. A clever thought or plan. For example, John had a bright idea for saving space—we would each have a terminal but share the printer. This term uses bright in the sense of “intelligent” or “quick-witted” and may be employed either straightforwardly, as in the example above, or ironically, as in Jumping in the pool with your clothes on—that was some bright idea. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

A bright idea - the image getting across is that William is just an ordinary Joe.

From BBC • Nov. 30, 2025

“In 1999 after Yahoo and America Online had already gone up like tenfold, I got the bright idea at Soros to short internet stocks.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025

In other words, developing that alternative must be a democratic process, not just one person’s bright idea.

From Salon • Apr. 12, 2025

First, it turned out that I wasn’t the only one with the bright idea.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2022

I owe this progress report to Burt who had the bright idea that I could dictate this on a transistor tape recorder and have a public stenographer in Chicago type it up.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes