What does ‘the elephant in the room’ mean?
To “the elephant in the room” means to an obvious problem no one wants to discuss. This is a 20th-century American idiom and is not in Brewer's 1898; the earliest clear print uses appear in the mid-1900s.
Origin
- This is a 20th-century American idiom and is not in Brewer's 1898; the earliest clear print uses appear in the mid-1900s.
How to use it
- Common in meetings and family conversations to name a topic being avoided.
- Example: Nobody mentioned the layoffs — the elephant in the room.
Source:
Last verified: 2026-07-18
- Definitions and origins are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), with modern usage notes clearly marked.