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Definitions

tip of the iceberg

ADJECTIVE
one-dimensional
Synonyms
STRONGEST
peripheral shallow sketchy warped
WEAK
apparent casual cosmetic cursory depthless desultory empty evident exterior external flash flimsy frivolous general glib half-baked hasty hurried ignorant inattentive lightweight nodding on the surface ostensible outward partial passing perfunctory quick-fix seeming shoal silly skin-deep slapdash slight smattery summary surface trivial uncritical
ADJECTIVE
superficial
Synonyms
STRONGEST
cursory frivolous one-dimensional perfunctory silly sketchy slight trivial
WEAK
apparent casual cosmetic depthless desultory empty evident exterior external flash flimsy general glib half-baked hasty hurried ignorant inattentive lightweight nodding on the surface ostensible outward partial passing peripheral quick-fix seeming shallow shoal skin-deep slapdash smattery summary surface uncritical warped
Antonyms
STRONGEST
complete important mature sensible serious significant thoughtful wise
WEAK
analytical careful deep detailed genuine thorough

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“I think this is the tip of the iceberg; you could easily double or triple the number of university retirement communities.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

These lawsuits are the tip of the iceberg.

From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026

"We are potentially only seeing the tip of the iceberg," Dr. Tordjman said.

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026

We believe fox8 was only the tip of the iceberg because better coders can filter out self-revealing posts or use open-source AI models fine-tuned to remove ethical guardrails.

From Salon • Feb. 15, 2026

Bran came up with this: “Rich girl escapes while poor artist drowns when mega-ship sees only the tip of the iceberg and sinks as the crew rearranges the deck chairs while the band plays on.”

From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg