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.
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.