elephant in the room

What it means

An elephant in the room is a big, unmistakable problem or topic that everyone present is aware of but no one wants to bring up — usually because it's awkward, painful, or politically risky. It shows up constantly in workplace meetings, family gatherings, and political coverage.

Words like “elephant in the room” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.

Examples

• Let's address the elephant in the room: we missed our quarterly target.
• Nobody mentioned his drinking, but it was the elephant in the room.
• The CEO finally talked about layoffs — the elephant in the room all month.
• There's an elephant in the room here, and it's the cost of childcare.

Where it comes from

Often traced to the Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov's 1814 tale 'The Inquisitive Man', about a visitor who notices every tiny detail in a museum but somehow misses the elephant. The English form became common in the late 20th century as a metaphor for avoided topics.

Related idioms