C1idiomcommunicationIELTS-friendly
the elephant in the room
USUK
an obvious problem that everyone knows about but nobody wants to discuss
Often with 'address', 'ignore' or 'talk about'. Common in meetings and news articles.
In context
Let's address the elephant in the room: our budget has been cut by thirty percent.
Nobody at dinner mentioned his divorce, but it was clearly the elephant in the room.
More idioms about communication
- a moot pointUK: a question still open to argument. US: a question that no longer matters in practice.
- beat around the bushto avoid saying something directly, usually because it is uncomfortable
- get the wrong end of the stickto understand something in the wrong way
- get to the pointto start talking about the most important part of a subject
- get your point acrossto make other people understand what you are trying to say