think outside the box part of speech

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Think outside the box

What's the meaning of the phrase 'think outside the box'.

• American origin

Think creatively, unimpeded by orthodox or conventional constraints.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Think outside the box'?

‘Think outside the box’ originated in the USA in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It has become something of a cliche, especially in the business world, where ‘thinking outside the box’ has become so hackeyed as to be rather meaningless.

Various authors from the world of management consultancy claim to have introduced the phrase. The earliest citation that I have found comes from the weekly magazine of the US aviation industry – Aviation Week & Space Technology , July 1975:

“We must step back and see if the solutions to our problems lie outside the box.”

The ‘box’, with its implication of rigidity and squareness, symbolises constrained and unimaginative thinking. This is in contrast to the open and unrestricted ‘ out of the box ‘ or ‘ blue-sky’ thinking. This latter phrase dates from a little earlier, for example, this piece from the Iowa newspaper the Oelwein Daily Register , April 1945:

“Real thinking. Speculation. Pushing out in the blue. Finding out [the facts] was what put me onto the theory of blue-sky thinking.”

The encouragement to look for solutions from outside our usual thinking patterns was championed in the UK by Edward De Bono, the psychologist and inventor, who coined the term Lateral Thinking in 1967 and went on to develop it as a method of structured creativity.

So, what’s this box? It turns out that, rather than being metaphorical, the reference was to a specific box – in the form of a two-dimensional square. Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers) , 1914, included a puzzle, known as the ‘Nine Dots Puzzle’, which was posed like this:

“Draw a continuous line through the center of all the eggs so as to mark them off in the fewest number of strokes.”

Loyd was a little sloppy with the puzzle’s rules and ought to have added that the lines must be straight, although he did supply an illustration that makes the meaning clear.

The 60/70s management gurus who exhorted trainees to ‘think outside the box’ made their point by resurrecting the old ‘Nine Dots Puzzle’ as a test. Those of you who are familiar with the puzzle’s solution will see why. If you haven’t yet solved it for yourself, just click on the nine-dot image below.

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Think outside the box

| Grammarist

To think outside the box means to think beyond conventional ideas, to think in an original way. Related terms are thinks outside the box, thought outside the box, thinking outside the box , the adjective form is out-of-the-box thinking . The phrase originated in the United States during the late 1960s or early 1970s in the field of management consultancy. Metaphorically, the box in the phrase think outside the box represents old and hackneyed ways of addressing a problem.

Examples Fender Custom Shop thinks outside the box with cardboard Stratocaster guitar ( The Oceanside Post ) Long before the term was coined, great minds thought outside the box and made contributions. ( The Huffington Post ) Structured curriculums, graduation requirements and state assessments often keep students and teachers from finding time during the day to go outside the box to explore areas of personal interest that can be just as important in the educational process. ( The Hastings Tribune) By thinking outside the box — or in this case the pallet — the duo has helped to earn Knox Grammar School a prestigious nod in the $20 Boss Awards. ( The Daily Telegraph ) When it comes to holiday shopping, the Attleboro Arts Museum says think outside the box – the big box store, that is. ( The Sun Chronicle ) Here’s a look at some of the best box sets of the season, and some outside-the-box gift ideas for the movie lovers on your list. ( The Greensboro News & Record ) Encourage employees to think like upstarts, who develop ideas outside the box, not just as members of a successful organisation, he added, as history has shown how such organisations have had “their meal taken away from them by new players”. ( The Straits Times )

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think outside the box

Definition of think outside the box

Examples of think outside the box in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'think outside the box.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near think outside the box

think oneself

Cite this Entry

“Think outside the box.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/think%20outside%20the%20box. Accessed 6 Jun. 2024.

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Idiom:  think outside the box

think outside the box :  

• to think creatively to find new ways of doing things or solving problems

Example sentences

—  Advertising agencies must think outside the box to come up with fresh new ideas that will grab consumers' attention.

—  Some of the best inventions have come from someone taking a regular product and adapting it by thinking outside the box .

—  Scheduling walking meetings rather than sitting around a table is a good example of how corporate America started thinking outside the box about group discussions.

—  Our company encourages thinking outside the box by allowing us to work on whatever we want every Thursday afternoon.

—  We've hired a consultant to help us foster activities that will help our employees think outside the box .

—  This company is going to go out of business unless we start thinking outside the box .

—  Parents who home school their children often think outside the box when creating educational activities.

—  Talk about literally thinking outside the box ! EBay's new augmented reality feature helps sellers determine which size U.S. Postal Service Flat Rate Box will best fit their items.

—  If Apple hadn't thought outside the box , we'd probably still be using flip phones and carrying MP3 players.

—  Here's an idea:  Why not just provide excellent customer service instead of trying to think outside the box to create a new product?

• pull a rabbit out of a hat
• rise to the challenge
• square the circle

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think outside the box

• think out of the box
• out of the box thinking
• think differently
• to be creative and produce something that is not usual or boring
• to come up with something that is unique and interesting
• look at the broader context of a problem, challenge etc.

Example Sentences

• The team always thinks outside the box to come up with unique advertisements for all its clients.
• This particular technology is quite out of the box in nature and should be a hit really easily.
• I teach my children to think of solutions which are outside the box . It helps them with problem solving and innovative thinking.
• In our organisation, thinking outside the box has an added advantage for all of the employees.
• This out of the box thinking has helped save many lives when travelling by the sea.
• I am trying to think outside the box to make this event a success at any cost this year.
• Sarah has spent her whole life in performing a routine job work so don’t expect that she would ever be able to think outside the box .

The phrase originates from a simile which draws a person’s thought in comparison to a box and how anything outside seems far-fetched and unachievable. It comes from the advertisement and marketing world where products compete for space in the market. Thinking outside the box helps the product life-cycle to become longer. The literary origin can be traced to the 20th century.

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A comparatively easy puzzle and requires out of box thinking. What letter comes in _ J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, N, _

‒ Kishor Bharucha May 29, 2021

There’s a puzzle with 9 dots in a square or “box” pattern. Puzzle solvers are asked to “set down pen(cil) and draw exactly 4 straight lines through all 9 dots,” it is only possible if one draws a big arrow with the corners of the triangle at the head “outside the box”.

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‒ Greg Stone August 31, 2020

I love this online book of idioms and phrase. It is very helpful and good to read.

‒ Jimmy Satugay March 3, 2019

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Similar Idioms

• food for thought

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of think outside the box in English

Think outside the box.

• beyond your wildest dreams idiom
• cognitive map
• conceivable
• impute something to someone
• in your mind's eye idiom
• inconceivably
• lay the foundation(s) of/for idiom
• look on/upon someone/something as something
• retheorization
• revisualization

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Translations of think outside the box

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any of the rods that join the edge of a wheel to its centre, so giving the wheel its strength

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The Famous Puzzle That Popularized the Phrase ‘Think Outside the Box’

By ellen gutoskey | may 30, 2022.

The figurative meanings of some phrases—like close, but no cigar and cut to the chase —seem different enough from the words themselves that you might assume they were once meant literally. (And in both those cases, you’d be right.)

Thinking outside the box , meaning to think unconventionally or creatively, doesn’t fully fall into this category. Even if a literal box had never been involved, the phrase would still make sense: Conventional practices and thought processes all fit nicely into a box, and you have to venture outside of that in order to come up with innovative ideas and solutions.

When the phrase first arose in the 1970s, however, an actual box of sorts was involved. What’s known as the nine dots puzzle entails drawing a box of nine evenly spaced dots and then connecting them all with just four lines, without lifting your pencil. In trying to do so, people tend to assume that they’re not allowed to extend their lines beyond the boundaries of the grid. But, of course, the only way to solve the puzzle is to do just that. In other words, you need to think outside the box. 

It’s unclear exactly how old the nine dots puzzle is. One variation is featured in Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums With Answers , published in 1914; some even credit British mathematician Henry Dudeney with having developed today’s version. 

Whatever the case, the puzzle gained popularity in the 1970s as a way for academics to illustrate how people think and work. As Forbes reports , psychologist J.P. Guilford used it in experiments in the early 1970s; leadership expert John Eric Adair claims to have introduced it in 1969.

The phrase think outside the box soon followed. The earliest known written reference, per the Oxford English Dictionary , comes from a 1971 piece in the journal Data Management . “Think outside the box,” the heading reads. “If you have kept your thinking process operating inside the lines and boxes [of organization charts], then you are normal and average, for that is the way your thinking has been programmed.”

But before think outside the box , we briefly had think outside the dots , which showed up in a June 1970 article in Alberta, Canada’s Lethbridge Herald . And in a 1959 newspaper column, as word histories reports , Hal Humphrey mentioned a method of thinking that “gets outside the nine-dot square.”

While encouraging people to think outside the dots might earn you some quizzical looks, it might leave more of an impression than the now-overused cliché of thinking outside the box.

[h/t Forbes ]

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What It Means to Truly “Think Outside the Box”

• Sabrina Meherally

How to radically reimagine the rules society imposes on us.

Society is filled with unwritten rules that many of us are taught to follow from a young age. For example, the belief that clothing is gendered, the concept of a weekend, and even more official laws like the ban of burqas and niqabs in European countries.

• The author argues that these standards belong to something called the colonial imagination — ideas born out of colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal, and hyper-capitalist values with the intention of upholding power and privilege for a select few, at the expense of everyone else.
• To rewrite these rules, we need to think outside the box. The problem is that our “out-of-the-box” thinking generally happens within the confines of the colonial imagination.
• When we talk about thinking outside the box, the real exercise and challenge is to step entirely out of those boundaries.
• The catalyst for real change exists in our ability to radically imagine new possibilities (even if they feel out of reach), to question the way things are, and to stretch the boundaries of what could be.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

How often have you questioned the separation and labeling of “men’s” and “women’s” clothing in retails stores? It’s a standard that was established years ago , when most people were less conscious of (or simply didn’t care about) the harm this practice has on gender non-conforming people  — or anyone who challenges the binary. Still, big retailers continue to replicate and rely on this model. It’s now become so engrained in practice that many of us don’t question it, unless it impacts us personally.

• Sabrina Meherally is an inclusive design strategist, helping organizations create delightful, respectful, and responsible customer experiences. She is the founder of Pause and Effect and the host of the Inclusive Design podcast . Her work has been featured in Forbes and the Vancouver Tech Journal. Follow Sabrina on LinkedIn where she writes about product inclusion, racial equity, sustainability, and innovation.

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20 Other Ways to Say “Think Outside the Box”

The phrase “Think outside the box” has become the poster child for innovation and creative thinking.

Encouraging someone to break free from conventional thinking can spark a revolution in problem-solving and idea generation.

Let’s explore the palette of expressions that can inspire a fresher, more unorthodox approach to thinking.

Encouraging Innovation

• Suggests leaving the safety of the known to explore new ideas and solutions.
• Urges an escape from traditional methods in favor of original, unconventional approaches.
• Inspires one to release their full creative potential without constraints.

Inventive Idioms

• Derived from a childhood activity, this invites nonconformity and artistic recklessness.
• Originating from aviation, it encourages surpassing existing limits of performance.
• A playful twist, suggesting that there’s a whole playground of ideas beyond the familiar confines.

Business and Professional Terms

• Captures the startup culture’s drive to challenge the status quo and create groundbreaking changes.
• Recommends looking past the initial plan for additional, potentially groundbreaking options.
• Focuses on gathering and utilizing new viewpoints to inform better decision-making.

Creative and Artistic Flares

• Invites the envisioning of a situation or problem in an entirely new light.
• Encourages a daring departure from the expected narrative or the usual way of doing things.
• Suggests creating something uniquely harmonious that stands out from the usual tune.

Metaphors for Transformation

• Evokes growing novel ideas that can flourish into something extraordinary.
• Asks someone to adjust their viewpoint to gain a new perspective on an issue.
• Symbolizes the readiness to move forward from the old ways and begin afresh.

Prodding Pioneering Thoughts

• Encourages jumping into complex, creative problem-solving without hesitation.
• Inspires constructing connections or solutions that didn’t exist before.
• Urges exploring less conventional or less tried routes for a unique approach.

Reinforcing Originality

• Encourages actively shaping and expanding the range of possibilities.
• Invites the creation of an individual journey, untainted by the wear of common footsteps.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to sparking ingenuity, the call to “think outside the box” is only the beginning.

By using these varied expressions, you invite individuals and teams to embark on journeys of exploration in their own unique style, fostering environments where creativity can blossom into innovation.

So, the next time you want to ignite imaginative thinking, reach for one of these alternatives and watch the ideas soar beyond boundaries.

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11 Speeches on Thinking Outside the Box

From Breakthrough Thinking to Going Off the Rails

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'You are gangsters': Robert De Niro clashes with pro-Trump protesters

President Joe Biden's campaign held a news conference outside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump is on trial in his hush money case, with actor Robert De Niro and two officers who defended the Capitol from the Jan. 6 mob in 2021 warning about the dangers of re-electing the former president.

"The Twin Towers fell just over here, just over there. This part of the city was like a ghost town, but we vowed we would not allow terrorists to change our way of life. ... I love this city. I don't want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and eventually he can destroy the world," De Niro said.

Follow live trial updates here

"I don't mean to scare you. No, no, wait — maybe I do mean to scare you," De Niro continued. "If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections — forget about it. That's over; that's done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave."

After the news conference, on the way back to his car, De Niro mixed it up with some pro-Trump protesters, who yelled that he's a "wannabe," "paid sell-out" to the Democratic National Committee, "nobody" and a "little punk" whose "movies suck."

"You're not going to intimidate," De Niro replied. "That's what Trump does. ... We are going to fight back. We're trying to be gentlemen in this world, the Democrats. You are gangsters. You are gangsters!"

"You're washed up," a protester yelled.

"F--- you," De Niro shot back.

The Trump campaign also had a news conference mocking the Biden campaign's enlistment of De Niro. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt went after "elitist out-of-touch Hollywood actors like Robert De Niro who have no idea the real problems that people in this city and across this country are facing."

"The best that Biden can do is roll out a washed-up actor," Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said.

On Friday, the Biden campaign released a new ad featuring De Niro — who was nominated this year for an Oscar for the movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" — that will air on television and digital platforms across battleground states.

In the scuffle Tuesday, there was at least one De Niro fan in the crowd who yelled out, “I loved you in 'Taxi Driver'!”

Katherine Koretski reported from New York and Amanda Terkel from Washington, D.C.

Katherine Koretski is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.

Amanda Terkel is politics managing editor for NBC News Digital.

Trump calls trial a ‘scam,’ vows to appeal historic guilty verdict

Former president Donald Trump, speaking at a rambling news conference Friday in New York, vowed to appeal his conviction on all counts in his hush money trial, calling it “a scam.” On Thursday, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult-film actress. During Friday’s remarks, Trump renewed his attacks on the judge and prosecutor and aired other grievances about the process, making multiple false and misleading claims. He took no questions from reporters.

• Trump and his allies believe that criminal convictions will work in his favor
• Biden: It’s reckless and irresponsible to say Trump verdict was rigged
• House GOP wants Bragg to testify on Trump hush money prosecution

Here's what to know:

Here's what to know, live coverage contributors 32.

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