In this special issue, four leading experts in the field look beyond cross-linguistic differences at the level of individual figurative idioms into more general cross-cultural variations in metaphor usage that may underlie them. Three types of cross-cultural variation in metaphor usage are examined by the contributors: differences with regard to the particular source-target mappings that have become conventional in the given cultures; differences with regard to value-judgements associated with the source or target domains of shared mappings; and differences with regard to the degree of pervasiveness of metaphor as such, as compared with other (rhetorical) figures. This special issue concludes that cross-cultural communication would benefit substantially from a heightened metaphor awareness on the part of educators and language learners.