elephant in the room
23
4.5
- idiom
- /ˈɛlɪfənt ɪn ðə ruːm/
- Informal
:
elefante en la habitación
- At the meeting, nobody wanted to bring up the elephant in the room regarding budget cuts.
Bringing us then to the elephant in the room, more cores.
- Bringing us then to the elephant in the room, more cores.
- So it's like an elephant in the room, right?
- So let me just address the elephant in the room.
- So let's just let's just talk about the elephant in the room.
- However, there is the elephant in the room.
- Fortnite and that's that's the big that's that's the elephant in the room.
- Yeah, No, it's, it's certainly the, the, the elephant in the room.
- Listen, we're all going to talk about the elephant in the room today, which is my TBR cart.
- Like I think for all of us, the big elephant in the room is do you understand yourself?
- So let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Examples
-
Can we talk at all, or do we agree to walk by the elephant in the room?
Academic text (2003) -
Like I think for all of us, the big elephant in the room is do you understand yourself?
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But what about the elephant in the room, the Google Home Max?
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Are we even gonna talk about the elephant in the room?
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Could I just point out the elephant in the room?
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Let's just talk about the elephant in the room first.
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Let's talk about the elephant in the room, shall we?
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First... we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
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I'm gonna address the elephant in the room.
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Nobody's talking about the elephant in the room.
Synonyms
7
5.6
A difficult issue people try to avoid or pass to others
1
6.6
An obvious problem that everyone knows but avoids talking about
Antonyms
How Obvious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The idiom maps the literal image of a very large, hard-to-ignore animal occupying a space onto an obvious problem that people avoid mentioning; this metaphorical connection is motivated by the constituent meanings (elephant + in + room) rather than arbitrary. Because the relation is figurative but inferable from the vivid literal image — and many languages have similar metaphors — a B1 learner who knows the words may be able to guess the sense but not fully predict it without exposure.
Etymology
Elephant in the room paints a simple picture: imagine a very large elephant standing in a small room while everyone pretends not to see it. That's why the phrase means 'an obvious problem people avoid talking about'.