# problematic

Pronunciation: say "prob-luh-MAT-ik" US /ˌpɹɑbləˈmætɪk/, UK /ˌpɹɒbləˈmætɪk/

## Adjective

1. Full of difficulties that resist an easy solution or decision.
   - Simple: Hard to deal with, solve, or fix.
   - _The committee faced a problematic clause that no one could interpret consistently._
   - _Funding the expansion proved more problematic than the board had anticipated._
2. Contributing, especially in subtle ways, to discrimination such as racism, sexism, or homophobia.
   - Simple: Helping to support unfair treatment of people, often without meaning to.
   - _Critics called the advertisement problematic for the way it portrayed older workers._
   - _The textbook's framing of immigrants struck many teachers as problematic._
3. Not settled or certain; of uncertain outcome and open to doubt or debate.
   - Simple: Not yet settled or certain, and open to doubt or argument.
   - _The authorship of the manuscript is still problematic among scholars._
   - _Forecasting the storm's exact path proved problematic for the meteorologists._

## Noun

4. A problem or difficulty within a particular field of study or inquiry.
   - Simple: A problem or hard question within a certain area of study.
   - _The book opens by defining the problematic that frames the entire investigation._
   - _Each chapter addresses a distinct problematic in the philosophy of mind._

## Adjective

5. Of a proposition, affirming only the possibility that a predicate holds, rather than its actuality or necessity. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Saying only that something might be true, not that it is.
   - _In Kantian logic, a problematic judgment expresses mere possibility, leaving the truth undecided._
   - _He treated the premise as problematic, asserting that the outcome was possible but not assured._

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French problématique, from Late Latin problematicus, ultimately from Ancient Greek próblēma ("barrier, problem"), which came from probállō ("I throw or place before"), formed from pró ("before") and bállō ("I throw"). By surface analysis it is problem plus -atic.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/problematic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).