A thematic corpus-based study of idioms in the Corpus of Contemporary American English

Table 4 The overall frequencies of the themes

Theme	Overall freq.
Secrecy	10.26
Cooperation	7.64
Preparation and readiness	7.26
Boastfulness and conceit	6.30
Crisis	5.76
Success	5.63
Power	5.31
Excess and extravagance	5.11
Change	5.08
Critics and criticism	5.07
Misfortune and adversity	4.95
Strength	4.94
Caution	4.86
Action	4.20
Travel and transport	4.20
Danger	4.09
Madness	3.84
Anger and annoyance	3.75
Time	3.68
Expense	3.64
Hope and optimism	3.58
Happiness, pleasure, and enjoyment	3.29
Haste and speed	3.24
Ambition	3.02
Chaos and disorder	2.95
Argument and conflict	2.91
Death	2.74
Certainty	2.55
Experience	2.48
Class	2.36
Thoroughness	2.29
Appearance	2.25
Honesty	2.18
Language, speech, and conversation	2.16
Work and employment	2.13
Duty and responsibility	2.07
Embarrassment, shame, and humiliation	2.06
Self-interest	1.99
Equality	1.97
Opportunity	1.91
Mistakes	1.89
Violence	1.89
Deception and lying	1.82
Family	1.8
Revenge and retribution	1.76
Bribery, corruption, and extortion	1.71
Money, wealth, and prosperity	1.71
Futility	1.67
Surprise	1.64
Courage	1.59
Reputation and fame	1.58
Crime and punishment	1.53
Marriage	1.51
Pregnancy	1.47
Unhappiness and disappointment	1.32
Age	1.28
Debt	1.27
Health and illness	1.23
Weakness	1.12
Forgiveness and reconciliation	1.1
Indecision and prevarication	1.09
Laziness	1.09
Love	1.01
Foresight and the future	0.97
Gossip and rumor	0.96
Anxiety and worry	0.93
Justice	0.92
Traitors and treachery	0.90
Jealousy and envy	0.89
Intelligence and knowledge	0.87
Poverty	0.85
Food	0.79
Hypocrisy	0.78
Weather	0.77
Warfare	0.76
Youth	0.74
Beauty	0.62
Doubt and uncertainty	0.57
Clothes	0.27
Fate and chance	0.25
Fools and foolishness	0.16