tip of the iceberg

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a small, visible part of a much larger problem that remains hidden; in climate and environmental contexts, often used to describe how visible environmental damage represents only a fraction of the total harm; the phrase evokes the fact that only about 10% of an iceberg is visible above water

History and origin

English — the idiom became widely used after the RMS Titanic disaster (1912), which dramatically illustrated the hidden danger of icebergs; the physical phenomenon of icebergs being mostly submerged has been known since the 18th century

Examples

• The bleached coral we saw was just the tip of the iceberg — 50% of the reef had already died.
• The carbon we can easily measure is just the tip of the iceberg of our total climate impact.