elephant in the room

== English == === Etymology === Likely US origin, or possibly from Ivan Andreyevich Krylov's 1814 fable, The Inquisitive Man, which tells of a man going to a museum and noticing all sorts of things apart from an elephant. === Pronunciation === === Noun === elephant in the room (plural elephants in the room) (idiomatic) A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved. Synonym: emperor's new clothes Near-synonyms: 800-pound gorilla, gorilla in the room, 800-pound gorilla in the room ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== === References === === Further reading === elephant in the room on Wikipedia.Wikipedia