Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

800-pound gorilla

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.86 in modern English

Syllables: 800--pound -go-ril-la
IPA

16

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

6

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An entity that dominates its environment.

noun

Something dangerous, menacing, or frightening that is obvious but not addressed.

Example Sentences

"Q: Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep? A: Wherever it wants!"
"Back then, the mayor was an 800-pound gorilla in this town."
"When it comes to the lucrative search market, Google, not Microsoft, is the 800-pound gorilla."
"The thing he unfortunately doesn't recognise is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motor sports. The 800-pound gorilla is Nascar."
"It was poetically fitting. For almost a year, Mr. Trump has been the 800-pound gorilla whose unpredictable rampages have obsessed the news media. Now he was completing the circle by commenting on the 400-pound gorilla who briefly stole the spotlight from him for one holiday weekend."
"Apache Spark is a cluster-computing framework. It’s the 800-pound gorilla you turn to when it’s impossible to fit your data in memory."

Etymology

Attested since at least 1971, from a riddle: "Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep?" / "Anywhere it wants."

Inflected Forms

800-pound gorillas (plural)

Phrases

800-pound gorilla in the room acknowledge the corn

Frequently Paired Words

acknowledge the corn paromologia paromology

Synonyms

800-pound gorilla in the room gorilla in the room elephant in the room emperor's new clothes

Questions

What does 800-pound gorilla mean?: An entity that dominates its environment.
Where does 800-pound gorilla come from?: Attested since at least 1971, from a riddle: "Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep?" / "Anywhere it wants."

How to pronounce 800-pound gorilla

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