emperor's new clothes
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A situation where people are afraid to admit the truth about something
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
tình huống mà mọi người sợ thừa nhận sự thật về một điều gì đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a monarch's new garments
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company's new project is like the emperor's new clothes, nobody wants to say it's failing
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “emperor's new clothes” mean?
A situation where people are afraid to admit the truth about something Literally: a monarch's new garments
Is “emperor's new clothes” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.