English · Idiom Candidate

on the cards

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Likely.

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

We have to rely simply on the speculation that we hear.

Clearly this is something we do not wish to be associated with; we can only imagine they are trying to get some kind of spurious respectability by using our name.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “on the cards” mean?

Likely.

Is “on the cards” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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