talk of the devil
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to mention someone just before they appear
Literally: speaking of the devil
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
' Talk of the devil, ' Jos said.
' Talk of the devil, my exit cue, I think, ' muttered Jill, making her excuses and slipping away.
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. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “talk of the devil” mean?
to mention someone just before they appear Literally: speaking of the devil
Is “talk of the devil” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.