white elephant

W w

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- /ʰwaɪt, waɪt ˈe-lə-fənt/
- /waɪt ˈel.ɪ.fənt/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- /ʰwaɪt, waɪt ˈe-lə-fənt/

Definitions of white elephant words

noun white elephant a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of: Our Victorian bric-a-brac and furniture were white elephants. 1
noun white elephant a possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner: When he bought the mansion he didn't know it was going to be such a white elephant. 1
noun white elephant an abnormally whitish or pale elephant, usually found in Thailand; an albino elephant. 1
noun white elephant unwanted item 1
countable noun white elephant If you describe something as a white elephant, you mean that it is a waste of money because it is completely useless. 0
noun white elephant a rare albino or pale grey variety of the Indian elephant, regarded as sacred in parts of S Asia 0

See all 13 definitions of white elephant

Information block about the term

Origin of white elephant

First appearance:

before 1850

One of the 32% newest English words

First recorded in 1850-55; from the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the courtier

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for White elephant

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of White elephant

white elephant popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 32% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 61% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

white elephant usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for white elephant

adj white elephant

catchpenny — designed to have instant appeal, esp in order to sell quickly and easily without regard for quality
cheap — Goods or services that are cheap cost less money than usual or than you expected.
cruddy — dirty or unpleasant
glitzy — pretentiously or tastelessly showy: a glitzy gown.

adjective white elephant

junky — of the nature of junk; trashy.

All 5 Synonyms of white elephant

Matching words

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