dilemmata
- 1Plural of dilemma. A rare, learned plural beside the usual dilemmas.
The ethics seminar examined the dilemmata that arise when scarce organs must be allocated.
Ancient rhetoricians delighted in constructing dilemmata that trapped an opponent in either answer.
Note
A Greek plural kept intact: the -ma ending becomes -mata, as it does in schemata and stigmata. Everyday English says dilemmas, and dilemmata now belongs to formal and scholarly prose. It sits most naturally beside the logician's and rhetorician's senses of the word, such as the syllogism with two branches or the trap that offers an opponent two equally bad answers. Used for an ordinary hard choice, it tends to sound mannered.
dilemmata is a form of dilemma
dilemma, noun: A situation requiring a choice between two or more options that all seem equally undesirable. Full entry
- Spelling
- dilemma → dilemmata: irregular plural (no -s)
Use it in a sentence
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