Elephant in the room

How it is used

Used to bring an avoided issue into discussion. The expression can sound challenging, so identify the issue calmly and specifically.

Example sentences

1. The budget cut was the elephant in the room during a meeting about expanding the team.

   The avoided funding problem directly affects the expansion plan.

2. We finally addressed the elephant in the room: neither department trusted the shared figures.

   Naming the distrust makes a previously avoided obstacle explicit.

Common collocations

• address the elephant in the room
• ignore the elephant in the room

Related terms

• raise an issueTo mention a problem, concern, or matter so others can discuss it and possibly deal with it.
• company policyAn official rule or set of rules that guides how employees should act in particular situations at work.

More terms: Office Idioms and Phrases

• touch base
• heads-up
• on the same page
• keep me posted
• ballpark figure
• bandwidth
• circle back
• low-hanging fruit
• get the ball rolling
• back to the drawing board
• drop the ball
• on my radar