Meaning & use
cog in the wheel
A person who plays a small, often unnoticed part within a much larger organization or system.
See it in a sentence
He felt like just a cog in the wheel at the massive corporation.
Every volunteer mattered, even those who felt like a small cog in the wheel of the campaign.
A note on using this word
The idiom is sometimes phrased as "a cog in the machine" and often implies a feeling of insignificance despite doing necessary work.
Words with a similar meaning
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