Bermuda Triangle
- proper noun
- /bərˈmjuːdə ˈtraɪæŋɡəl/
- Informal
Examples
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I have yet to see it at its worst, but I am convinced that it can resemble the Bermuda Triangle, where boats of all sizes disappear, never to be seen again.
Blog text (6) -
In project management, we often encounter a Bermuda Triangle where resources are lost and deadlines fail to be met.
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This new software seems to act like a Bermuda Triangle, where our ideas disappear before they can be implemented.
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Many teams describe their workflow as a Bermuda Triangle, where tasks vanish and progress halts unexpectedly.
Synonyms
A difficult situation that is hard to escape or solve
A situation where one problem causes another and makes things worse
A project or organization that is failing and likely to collapse
A situation where one problem causes another and makes the first problem worse
A situation that always needs more money or help
Surface Forms
Morphology
Bermuda + triangle
Bermuda Triangle is a proper-name reference to a region famous for alleged mysterious disappearances; the figurative meaning 'an area where things repeatedly disappear or fail' depends on that cultural/encyclopedic knowledge rather than regular compositional semantics. A B1 learner who knows 'Bermuda' (as a place name) and 'triangle' (a three‑sided shape) would not reliably infer the idiomatic figurative sense from the constituents alone, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
Bermuda Triangle is used as a simple picture: because the sea area was said to make things 'vanish', people call any part of a project a Bermuda Triangle when tasks, decisions, or resources keep getting lost there. So it means a place in a system where work or items seem to disappear.