dilemma
- 1A hard choice where every option seems bad.
Like standing between two doors that both lead somewhere you don't want to go.
He had a real dilemma: help his brother or keep his promise to a friend.
The team faced a dilemma: play it safe or take a big risk.
Similarquandary, predicament, bind
Note
- 2Any difficult problem or hard situation you have to deal with.
Like a knot that is hard to untie.
We ran into a dilemma when the car broke down far from town.
Finding affordable housing has become a real dilemma for many families.
Similarproblem, difficulty, predicament, trouble, quandary
Note
- 3A way of reasoning where two if-then rules and an either-or fact lead to one of two results.
Like two roads that both lead to a place you must end up at.
In logic class we built a dilemma from two if-then rules.
A clever dilemma left him agreeing that one of two results had to be true.
Note
- 4A move in an argument that gives your opponent two choices, both equally bad for them.
In the debate, she used a dilemma: either he said the plan failed, or he said he had lied about it.
Her question was a dilemma that trapped him no matter how he answered.
Note
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of dilemma apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It comes from Greek dilemma, meaning something with two parts: 'two' plus 'premise'.