English · Proverb Candidate

you cannot see the wood for trees

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Cannot see the overall situation due to being distracted by details

Literally: cannot see the forest for the individual trees

Examples

He was so focused on the small issues that he couldn't see the wood for the trees

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Trees & plants

Common questions

What does “you cannot see the wood for trees” mean?

Cannot see the overall situation due to being distracted by details Literally: cannot see the forest for the individual trees

Is “you cannot see the wood for trees” formal or informal?

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

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