Word.ws English Dictionary

the very idea

the very idea noun: used to indicate surprise or incredulity.

Noun

the very idea

  1. Used to indicate surprise or incredulity.
    • “Well, of all things!” cried the equally astonished Jane. “And here I have been wasting whole reams of perfectly good imagination picturing you in Baltimore—the very idea!” And she threw her arms about her friend once more, and kissed her a dozen times.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 111

Questions about the very idea

What does the very idea mean?
The very idea means used to indicate surprise or incredulity.
What part of speech is the very idea?
The very idea is a noun.

Words near the very idea in the dictionary

  1. the truth is in the wine
  2. the truth that
  3. the turns have tabled
  4. The Undercliff
  5. The Valley
  6. the very idea
  7. the very thing
  8. the victor gets the spoils
  9. The Villages
  10. The Ville
  11. the vine that ate the South

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the very idea (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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