not see the wood for the trees
UK (US not see the forest for the trees)Definition
› to be unable to get a general understanding of a situation because you are too worried about the detailsMisunderstanding
(Definition of not see the wood for the trees from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
Browse related topics
You are looking at an entry to do with Misunderstanding, but you might be interested in these topics from the Using the mind topic area:
- Analysing and evaluating
- Aware
- Believable
- Believing
- Changing your mind
- Concluding and deducing
- Continually thinking about
- Decisions and deciding
- Deep in thought
- Difficult to understand
- Dreaming
- Easy to understand
- Empathy and sensitivity
- Experienced
- Experts and specialists
- Expressing and asking opinions
- Forgetting and forgetfulness
- Guesses and assumptions
- Guessing, supposing and suspecting
- Ideas, concepts and theories
- Imagining and conceiving
- Inability and awkwardness
- Inexperienced (of people)
- Inexperienced people and lack of experience
- Inspiration and inspiring
- Intelligence
- Intelligent people
- Judgments and analyses
- Knowledge and awareness
- Logic and reason
- Memory and memories
- Mind and personality
- Not believable
- Not believing
- Not expected or planned
- Opinions, beliefs and points of view
- People who analyse and judge
- People who make predictions
- Philosophy
- Planning, expecting and arranging
- Plans and arrangements
- Predicting things and intuition
- Remembering, reminding and reminders
- Skill, talent and ability
- Skilled, talented and able
- Solving and solutions
- Stupid and silly
- Stupid and silly behaviour
- Stupid and silly people
- Testing, checking and experimenting
- Thinking and contemplating
- Trusting and not trusting
- Unaware
- Understanding and comprehending
- Wise and sensible
Browse the Dictionary
-
not say boo idiom
-
not see beyond sth idiom
-
not see beyond sth phrasal verb
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not see hide nor hair of sb idiom
-
not see sb for dust idiom
- not see the wood for the trees idiom
-
not set the world on fire idiom
-
not sleep a wink idiom
-
not so much sth as sth idiom
-
not so shabby/not too shabby idiom
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not soil your hands idiom
Browse the Thesaurus
SMART Thesaurus
Synonyms and related words:
- cross purposes adverb
- don't get me wrong idiom
- get the wrong end of the stick idiom
- get your wires crossed idiom
- labour under the delusion, illusion, misapprehension, etc. idiom
- misapprehension noun
- miscalculate verb
- miscommunication noun
- misconceived adjective
- misconception noun
- misconstrue verb
- misinterpret verb
- misjudge verb
- misread verb (JUDGE WRONGLY)
- miss the point idiom
- mistaken adjective
- misunderstand verb
- misunderstanding noun
- underestimate verb (AMOUNT)
- underestimate verb (PERSON)
Topic:
Misunderstanding
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