目前存在或顯而易見、但不被承認或被忽視的棘手問題；目前存在或顯而易見、但人們不願提及或討論或者故意裝作不知道的棘手問題。
例句：
- The youngest son of our boss had broken one of the windows in our office. However, we had been too embarrassed to mention it to our boss. Two days later He decided to address the elephant in the room by admitting that his son had indeed broken the window. (老闆的么兒打破了我們辦公室一個窗戶。但我們都不好意思跟老闆提這件事。兩天後，他承認的確是他兒子打破了窗戶，因而解決了這個大家都不願提及的棘手問題)
- There was an elephant in the living room this morning when our boss held a meeting with a black eye, but did not say anything about what had happened. (今天早上當我們老闆帶著黑眼圈主持會議，但又隻字未提發生什麼事時，大家也裝作什麼事都沒發生) － 員工裝傻，可能的原因之一是，他們心知肚明，老闆昨晚肯定又遭到他那位母老虎老婆飽以一頓老拳。
註：有時亦用 the elephant in the living room 來表示。大家對這樣的問題裝作不知道、視若無睹，不願去碰觸，最大的原因當然是怕惹禍上身或招來不必要的麻煩。
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