hidden champion
hidden champion noun: a relatively small and little-known but highly successful company.
Noun
hidden champion (plural hidden champions)
- A relatively small and little-known but highly successful company.
- Omnipresent but obscure, family owned but by no means puny, Beckhoff is among thousands of “hidden champions” that account for much of Germany's prowess as a manufacturer and exporter.2012 April 14, “What Germany offers the world”, in The Economist
- Since one of the disadvantages of being a hidden champion is that by striving to remain understated and hidden from the public and, more importantly, large global competitors, the champion also remains somewhat hidden from highly skilled employees and university graduates as a potential employer.2016, David B. Audretsch, Erik E. Lehmann, The Seven Secrets of Germany: Economic Resilience in an Era of Global Turbulence, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 32
Forms of hidden champion
| plural | hidden champions |
|---|
Origin of hidden champion
Coined by German businessman Hermann Simon in 1996.
Questions about hidden champion
- What does hidden champion mean?
- Hidden champion means a relatively small and little-known but highly successful company.
- What part of speech is hidden champion?
- Hidden champion is a noun.
- What is the plural of hidden champion?
- The plural of hidden champion is hidden champions.
Words near hidden champion in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hidden champion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “hidden champion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hidden_champion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.