Idiom
The elephant in the room
The elephant in the room is an obvious problem that everyone knows about but nobody wants to talk about.
How people use it
People use it for awkward topics at family dinners, meetings and among friends, such as money trouble or a big mistake nobody mentions. Common patterns are "address the elephant in the room" and "talk about the elephant in the room." Often someone says it to finally bring the issue up. The tone is neutral and works in business and personal settings. The point is that the problem is huge and obvious, yet ignored.
Examples
- Nobody mentioned the budget cuts, but they were the elephant in the room during the meeting.
- Let's address the elephant in the room: the trip costs more than we planned.
- At dinner, the broken window was the elephant in the room.
Where it comes from
The image is of something so large it cannot be missed, while everyone acts as if it isn't there. The phrase became common in American English in the second half of the 1900s. An 1814 fable by the Russian writer Ivan Krylov, about a museum visitor who studies tiny insects but fails to notice an elephant, is sometimes cited as an inspiration, though the link is not certain.
Check yourself
1. What is the elephant in the room?
Answer: An obvious problem that people avoid talking about. The idiom describes an obvious issue everyone ignores.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: Everyone chatted about the weather, but Grandpa's health was the elephant in the room.. Grandpa's health is the obvious topic everyone avoids.
Similar idioms
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