Meaning
the idiom means that somebody has mentioned something that sounds familiar to you, perhaps you’ve heard it before. In other words, when someone says something that you believe you’ve heard in the past, alarm bells start ringing and you try to remember how or why that name or place sounds familiar.
Examples
“You’ve met my friend Amy Adams, right?”
“Hmmm, I’m not sure, but that name rings a bell. Was she the one who went to Paris last year?”
Origin
Synonyms
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does the idiom ‘Ring a bell’ mean?
The idiom ‘Ring a bell’ means “to deal with a difficult situation without being harmed or damaged”
How do you use ‘Ring a bell’ in a sentence?
Example usage of idiom ‘Ring a bell’: Newspapers have weathered the storm of online information by providing news online themselves.