What is the meaning of tip of the iceberg?

the tip of the iceberg

Only a small, often unrepresentative portion of something much larger or more complex that cannot yet be seen or understood. If congress doesn't vote to extend the debt limit, a government shutdown will only be the tip of the iceberg. The flooding is bad, but we're dealing with just the tip of the iceberg—a huge spate of environmental disasters are on the horizon because of climate change.

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

tip of the iceberg

Fig. only the part of something that can be easily observed, but not the rest of it, which is hidden. (Referring to the fact that the majority of an iceberg is below the surface of the water.) The problems that you see here now are just the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous disasters waiting to happen.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

tip of the iceberg

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]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

the tip of the iceberg

the tip of an iceberg

COMMON

1. If something is the tip of the iceberg or the tip of an iceberg, it is a small part of a very large problem or a very serious situation. We get about 2,000 complaints every year and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Figures show that there have been 700 official burglaries throughout the area, but police believe this is the tip of the iceberg.

2. If something is the tip of the iceberg or the tip of an iceberg, it is a small part of something large. These surveys are only the tip of an iceberg of continuing study. Note: People often use an adjective before iceberg to show what sort of thing it is. These songs are just the tip of the creative iceberg. Note: Only a very small part of an iceberg is visible above the water. About nine-tenths of it is below the surface.

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

tip of the iceberg

A small evident part or aspect of something largely hidden.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tip of the iceberg, (only) the

A small and superficial manifestation of a much larger (and often worse) situation. Icebergs are large, floating masses of ice detached from a glacier and carried out to sea; the bulk of their mass is below the water’s surface. This metaphor dates from the mid-twentieth century. Michael Gilbert used it in The Etruscan Net (1969): “I think, to employ a well-known metaphor, that all we can see at the moment is the tip of the iceberg.”

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer

• be the tip of the iceberg
• iceberg
• just the tip of the iceberg
• only the tip of the iceberg
• the tip of an iceberg
• the tip of the iceberg
• tip of the iceberg, (only) the
• it's a (type of person) thing
• it's a... thing
• go against the grain