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“The big picture” is an idiom commonly used in the US to describe understanding a situation as a whole rather than getting bogged down in details. It is important to note that idioms are non-literal expressions and may not be understood by those unfamiliar with them.
The phrase “the big picture” basically means the major, principal, or important part of something. A person is described as a person who sees the big picture when they can understand a situation or concept as a whole rather than getting bogged down on specific details. For example, an entrepreneur may be described as one who sees the big picture if he is able to easily assess whether a business issue is a success or is likely to be successful overall rather than selecting every detail. In some regions, this phrase is a commonly used expressive phrase that should not be interpreted literally.
People often use expressive phrases, called idioms, in their speech, especially when speaking to others casually. These types of sentences are meant to express thoughts and feelings in a non-literal way. There are many types of idioms that a person can use to express themselves, and some of them are common in some regions but not known at all in others. “The big picture” is an idiom that is most commonly used in the United States, although it can be heard in other English-speaking regions as well. A person is said to see the big picture when she understands the gist of something and is not distracted by details that might lead to confusion.
If an individual has difficulty understanding this phrase, they may find it helpful to consider an example of how it might be used. For example, the leader of a large organization may have many successes and failures to consider in determining whether the organization as a whole is a success. Instead of getting bogged down in evaluating a single success or failure, he must evaluate the organization and its operations as a whole and then make his own evaluation. Being able to see beyond specific details of the image as a whole means that a person can see the big picture.
A person unfamiliar with this idiom may get confused when hearing it. To a person unfamiliar with the phrase, “the big picture” may sound like a picture of some sort. As such, the person uttering these words may need to explain what she means to an individual who is not from a region where it is common. If he is speaking to an individual in the same region, however, his listener is likely to understand the sentence without any explanation.
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