English in everyday life
Proverbs
Explore English sayings from most to least frequent in a published American English corpus. Alternate forms are collected together.
About these frequency groups
Groups use full-form occurrence counts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), recorded in 2016–2017. For a proverb with several forms, we use the highest individual count, since adding overlapping forms could count the same occurrence twice.
These are historical American English corpus counts, not estimates of how often everyone uses a saying today. A zero means no full-form match was recorded. The source’s separate familiarity ratings are retained in the data but do not determine this ordering.
We grouped variants, merged reviewed duplicate entries, and preserved existing editorial wording. The source includes historical and dated sayings; inclusion is not an endorsement.
Expressions containing just, including its inflections. Clear word filter
32 entries
Most common
100 or more recorded occurrences
Common
10–99 recorded occurrences
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
Age is just a number
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
Be careful what you wish for; you might get it
Matching variant: Be careful what you wish for; it may just come true
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Old soldiers never die
Matching variant: Old soldiers never die; they just fade away
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
A kiss is just a kiss
Life is like a box of chocolates
Matching variant: Life is just a box of chocolates
There are no facts, just interpretations
A dog is for life, not just for Christmas
A smile is just a frown turned upside down
Eighty percent of life is showing up
Matching variant: Eighty percent of life is just showing up
It's always darkest before dawn
Matching variant: The darkest hour is just before the dawn
Life is a bowl of cherries
Matching variant: Life is just a bowl of cherries
Life is just one damn thing after another
Pain is weakness leaving the body
Matching variant: Pain is just weakness leaving the body
You can't be just a little bit pregnant
Not observed in this corpus
No full-form matches recorded; this does not mean the proverb is never used
Just because you're on a diet, doesn't mean you can't look at the menu
Just is good enough
Love is a four-letter word
Matching variant: Love is just a four-letter word
Luck doesn't just happen
Opportunity never knocks twice
Matching variant: Opportunity knocks just once
There are no bad students, just bad teachers
There are no problems, only opportunities
Matching variant: There are no problems, just challenges
You ain't just whistling "Dixie"
You can never do merely one thing
Matching variant: You can never do just one thing