Pandora's box

American  

noun

1. a source of extensive but unforeseen troubles or problems.

   The senate investigation turned out to be a Pandora's box for the administration.

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Pandora's box Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, a box that Zeus gave to Pandora, the first woman, with strict instructions that she not open it. Pandora's curiosity soon got the better of her, and she opened the box. All the evils and miseries of the world flew out to afflict mankind.

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Pandora's box Idioms  

1. A source of unforeseen trouble, as in Revising the tax code is opening a Pandora's box. This equivalent for the modern can of worms comes from the Greek legend in which Pandora, entrusted with a box containing the world's ills, is overcome by curiosity and opens it, thereby releasing them. [Late 1500s]

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Discover More

To “open a Pandora's box” is to create an uncontrollable situation that will cause great grief.

Etymology

Origin of Pandora's box

First recorded in 1570–80

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pandora's box

He likened the matter to a Pandora’s box, which “rarely closes” once it’s been opened.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

He was fired in 2022 for leaking proprietary data but all understood the Pandora’s box he opened by suggesting a Google large language model was conscious.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

And coming from the field of disinformation in particular, A.I. is a Pandora’s box of yet-to-be-imagined evils.

From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026

The Dodgers had opened Pandora’s box, and out would fly a lockout, a pall of smoke over their games, and a plague of locusts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

That night I kept thinking about Pandora's box.

From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech

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