Rate this phrase:5.0 / 1 vote

elephant in the room

A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved.

Etymology:

  • US origin, possibly from Ivan Andreevich Kyrlov's 1814 fable, “The Inquisitive Man”, which tells of a man going to a museum and noticing all sorts of things apart from an elephant.
68 Views
Collection   Edit    

Submitted on September 01, 2009

Translation

Find a translation for the elephant in the room phrase in other languages:

elefante en el cuarto

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to elephant in the room

engine roomnot enough room to swing a catelephant earelephant earselephant earbaby elephant in the roomrubber roomnervous as a long-tailed cat in a room …memory like an elephantroom inengine roomlocker room humorget a roomelbow room

How to pronounce this phrase?

Discuss this elephant in the room phrase with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this elephant in the room definition to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "elephant in the room." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Dec. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/elephant-in-the-room_3452>.

    Powered by CITE.ME Cite.Me

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a phrases master?

    »
    Here's my two __________.
    A cents
    B pence
    C words
    D thoughts

    Browse Phrases.com

    #ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ