Englishhit the nail on the head
Meaning: To come to the right conclusion.
Example: “You hit the nail on the head: the real problem is poor communication.”
Equivalents in other languages
German: Den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen Literally: To hit the nail on the head
Portuguese: Acertar na mosca Literally: To hit the fly
Origin: A carpentry image at heart: striking a nail dead center on its head drives it in cleanly, while a glancing, off-center blow bends it or sends it flying — so hitting it "on the head" became a natural stand-in for getting something exactly right. The English phrase is old enough to appear in Margery Kempe's autobiography around 1438, though her sense there reads closer to "speak severely" than to precision; the modern meaning is unambiguous by 1559, in William Cuningham's The Cosmographical Glass. The ancient Romans had already reached for the same kind of image with a different tool: rem acu tetigisti, "you have touched the thing with a needle," pinpoint accuracy expressed through embroidery rather than a hammer.
More English idioms
- keep one's nose to the grindstone To work hard without rest.
- knee-high to a grasshopper Very young.
- laugh all the way to the bank To be proved right or successful in the face of scorn, particularly as regards money.
- lead someone around by the nose To dominate someone; to force someone to do something.
- lend someone an ear To listen to someone.
- like water off a duck's back Having no effect on someone.
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
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