Word.ws English Dictionary

seeing the forest for the trees

seeing the forest for the trees is the present participle and gerund of see the forest for the trees.

Meaning of see the forest for the trees

Verb

see the forest for the trees (third-person singular simple present sees the forest for the trees, present participle seeing the forest for the trees, simple past saw the forest for the trees, past participle seen the forest for the trees)

  1. (idiomatic) To discern an overall pattern from a mass of detail; to see the big picture, or the broader, more general situation.
    • Smith is good at detail, but can't see the forest for the trees.

Questions about seeing the forest for the trees

What is seeing the forest for the trees the present participle and gerund of?
Seeing the forest for the trees is the present participle and gerund of see the forest for the trees.

Words near seeing the forest for the trees in the dictionary

  1. seeing the back of
  2. seeing the dark side of the moon
  3. seeing the day
  4. seeing the elephant
  5. seeing the error of one's ways
  6. seeing the forest for the trees
  7. seeing the glass half-empty
  8. seeing the glass half-full
  9. seeing the last of
  10. seeing the light
  11. seeing the light of day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: seeing the forest for the trees (page history and authors); see the forest for the trees (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “seeing the forest for the trees.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/seeing_the_forest_for_the_trees. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.