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A literal elephant in a room, attending a Sydney tea party in 1939. The metaphorical elephant in the room represents an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.
If you say there is an elephant in the room, you mean that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Difficult situations and unpleasant experiences. a hard/tough row to hoe idiom. abyss. adversity. at your worst idiom. Augean. bad hair day. epidemic.
The first known citation that uses the phrase with the clear intention of conveying our current understanding of the phrase is the title of Typpo and Hastings’ book An elephant in the living room: a leader’s guide for helping children of alcoholics, 1984.
: an obvious major problem or issue that people avoid discussing or acknowledging. Examples of elephant in the room in a Sentence. Recent Examples on the Web OpenAI, at last Apple waited one hour and seven minutes into its keynote address to mention the elephant in the room: generative artificial intelligence.
We all use the phrase “elephant in the room” to describe a situation or an issue that’s pretty obvious or noticeable, but it’s not being addressed or discussed the way it should be. Like when you know two friends in your friend’s group are fighting but are super quiet when among everyone.
The idiom ‘elephant in the room’ is a vivid expression used to highlight an obvious and significant issue or problem that everyone is deliberately ignoring or avoiding. When there’s an ‘elephant in the room,’ it implies the existence of a large, noticeable concern that is being overlooked, often due to discomfort, fear, or a ...
T he expression “elephant in the room”, sometimes also “elephant in the living room”, means “a big issue everyone is aware of, but which is being ignored, because everybody finds discussion about it uncomfortable”. The rationale behind the idiom is that an elephant in a (living) room would be impossible to overlook, but people in ...
Meaning: If there is an elephant in the room, it means that an obvious problem is being ignored. Put another way, it is a noticeable issue that is not acknowledged or addressed. Example: Jim arrived at work and his clothes were soaking wet!
elephant in the room. E. the elephant in the room also, the elephant in the living room. Meaning. a difficult, controversial, or obvious problem that no one wants to talk about or mention because the subject is problematic, uncomfortable, or awkward
elephant in the room. An obvious truth or fact, especially one regarded as embarrassing or undesirable, that is being intentionally ignored or left unaddressed. We all sat sipping our tea quietly, no one wanting to bring up the elephant in the room about Joel's expulsion from college.
