hide in plain sight

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To be visible but unnoticed or unrecognized

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đáng nhìn thấy nhưng không được chú ý hoặc nhận ra

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: conceal oneself in an obvious location
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The spy was able to hide in plain sight by dressing like a tourist

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “hide in plain sight” mean?

To be visible but unnoticed or unrecognized Literally: conceal oneself in an obvious location

Is “hide in plain sight” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.