tip of the iceberg

Cultural  

1. Only a hint or suggestion of a much larger or more complex issue or problem: “The money missing from petty cash was only the tip of the iceberg of financial mismanagement.” This phrase alludes to the fact that the bulk of a floating iceberg is concealed beneath the water, leaving only a small portion, its tip, visible above.

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tip of the iceberg Idioms  

1. Superficial evidence of a much larger problem, as in Laying off a hundred workers is only the tip of the iceberg. This idiom alludes to the structure of an iceberg, most of whose bulk lies underwater. [Mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

Officials are combing through thousands of documents and today's material could be the tip of the iceberg.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2026

The reported incidents flagged by Anthropic are “only the tip of the iceberg of actual usage for this type of data generation,” said Lambert.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 28, 2026

We believe fox8 was only the tip of the iceberg because better coders can filter out self-revealing posts or use open-source AI models fine-tuned to remove ethical guardrails.

From Salon • Feb. 15, 2026

Their battle for gold at the Milano Ice Skating Arena is just the tip of the iceberg during a year which included the fallout of a book written by Cizeron's former partner Gabriella Papadakis.

From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026

The front page was just the tip of the iceberg.

From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor

Related Words

• cursory
• frivolous
• one-dimensional
• perfunctory
• silly
• sketchy
• slight
• trivial