• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “Columbus’s egg.” Refers to a solution that seems obvious in hindsight but required creative thinking to discover — a simple idea that nobody thought of first.

  Vocabulary

  • jajko — egg
  • Kolumb — Columbus

  Grammar note

  'Kolumba' is the genitive of 'Kolumb' — genitive of possession.

  Cultural context

  From the story of Columbus standing an egg on its end by cracking the bottom — a lateral-thinking solution. The phrase is used across European languages.

  Intermediate

Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!