Collocations for idea - noun

bright, brilliant, clever, excellent, good, great, marvellous/marvelous, nice, wonderful
valuable, worthwhile
exciting, interesting, stimulating
constructive, positive
creative, imaginative, innovative, novel, original
wacky
big
The latest big idea is to get women more interested in soccer.

alternative
Family therapy is used as an alternative idea to medication.

fresh, new
old
absurd, bad, mistaken, ridiculous, stupid
crackpot, crazy, mad, outlandish, wild
half-baked
ambitious, big, grand
He joined the company as an office assistant with big ideas.

grandiose
basic
The basic idea is that we all meet up in London.

whole
I think the whole idea is ridiculous.

have
Do you have any ideas for a present for Lara?

come up with, dream up, hit on, hit upon, produce, think up
draw, get
Her ideas are drawn mainly from Chinese art.

contribute, offer
moot (formal, esp. BrE), propose, put forward, suggest
promote, push, push forward, sell
They managed to push the idea of expanding through the committee.

welcome
Most employees welcome the idea of a ban on smoking.

consider, entertain, flirt with, toy with
I'm toying with the idea of leaving my job.

mull over, turn over
He kept turning the idea of resigning over in his mind.

encourage, generate
Brainstorming is a good way of generating ideas.

reject, scoff at, veto
test, try, try out
bounce around, bounce off sb, brainstorm, discuss, explore, talk about
I met up with a designer to bounce a few ideas around.
It's useful to have someone to bounce ideas off.

exchange, pool, share
give sb
What gave you the idea to go freelance?

apply, implement, put into action, put into practice, take up
The idea had long been mooted but nothing had been done to put it into practice.

transform, translate
How could we translate the idea into business reality?

steal
She accused the company of stealing her idea.

impose
She always tries to impose her own ideas on the rest of the team.

come into sb's brain, come into sb's head, come into sb's mind, come to sb, flash through sb's brain, flash through sb's mind, hit sb, occur to sb, pop into sb's head, strike sb
The idea for the invention came to him in the bath.

emerge, evolve, form, grow
An idea began to form in his mind.

flow
His ideas flowed faster than he could express them.

come from sb/sth, date back from sth, date back to sth, originate, start, stem from sth
The idea for the Olympics originated with Pierre de Coubertin.

work, work out
That idea didn't work out so well.

lead
The idea eventually led to the invention of the telephone.

come to nothing

idea about
I have an idea about how to tackle the problem.

idea for
We were asked to suggest ideas for improving efficiency.

idea of
She had the idea of advertising on the Internet.

be open to ideas
I don't know what to do, but I'm open to ideas.

the germ of an idea
The germ of his idea came from watching a bird make a nest.

have other ideas
I wanted to take the week off, but my boss had other ideas.

have the right idea
The party had the right idea, but failed to win over the voters.

it might be an idea
It might be an idea to leave a note on the door for Marcos.

clear, concrete, precise
abstract
theoretical
basic, general, rough, vague
He gave me a rough idea of what was wanted.

central, key, main
The book introduces the key ideas of sociology.

dominant
fixed
preconceived
definite, firm, strong
She has very definite ideas about what kind of a job she wants.

complex, difficult
simple, simplistic
The movie is based on a simple idea, but a powerful one.

conventional
traditional
radical, revolutionary
contradictory
erroneous, false, wrong
I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about me.

funny, strange
utopian
romantic
People have a romantic idea of the police force.

newfangled
outdated
not the faintest, not the foggiest, not the slightest (all informal)
I haven't the faintest idea what she meant.

artistic, economic, intellectual, moral, musical, philosophical, political, scientific
feminist, nationalist, socialist, etc.

get
They got the idea that we would be paying for them.
You'll soon get the idea (= understand).

espouse, have, hold
He holds very different ideas to mine about discipline.

develop, form, shape
the experiences that shaped her ideas

introduce
express
communicate, convey, get across, get over, present, promote, put out there (AmE)
It was a struggle to get our ideas across.
I wanted to put the idea out there.

demonstrate, explain, expound, illustrate
clarify, formalize, formulate, organize, structure
Give careful thought to how to structure your ideas in the essay.

reinforce, support
change, reconsider, revise
They had to reconsider their ideas in the light of new evidence.

accept, embrace, take up
dismiss, reject
challenge
These photographs challenge conventional ideas of beauty.

harbour/harbor
I hope he's not still harbouring/harboring ideas about asking me out.

be obsessed with
He's obsessed with the idea of getting a motorcycle.

relish
I don't relish the idea of sharing an office with Tony.

amuse sb, appeal to sb, please sb
The idea of going to his rescue amused her.

catch on, take hold, take off
Some people started recycling, and the idea caught on.

idea about
She has some funny ideas about how to motivate staff.

idea behind
The idea behind the ceremony is to keep the gods happy to ensure a good crop.

idea of
Swimming in an icy river is not my idea of fun.