quandary
Americannoun
-
quandaries
plural
noun
Synonym Usage
See predicament.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of quandary
First recorded in 1570–80; perhaps fancifully from Latin quand(ō) “when” + -āre infinitive suffix
Explanation
How to define the word quandary? Wow, this is quite a dilemma. What to do, what to do? Hmmm. Looks like this moment itself is a quandary: a tough situation that will be really hard to resolve. If you’re uncertain what to do because all of your options seem unpleasant, you’re probably in a quandary. Some voters find themselves in a quandary when they dislike all of the candidates. A more common quandary is when you plan two events at the same time and can’t decide which one to attend. Some synonyms are predicament, dilemma, plight, and pickle — and choosing which word to use is a quandary in itself.
Vocabulary lists containing quandary
In a Pickle: Words for When You're in Trouble
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Grade 10, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Unlike Saturday, a review could not save Root, and England have a real quandary over how to counter-act Henry and New Zealand gloveman Tom Blundell.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
That’s the quandary faced by 49,000 residents living on the California side of Lake Tahoe, mostly in the city of South Lake Tahoe.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
However, he acknowledged YouTube is a particular quandary: its shifting sea of content makes real-time filtering nearly impossible, for Google or school districts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
OpenAI has been trying to build up its Claude Code competitor, Codex, and sees a window of opportunity in Anthropic’s quandary.
From Slate ● Apr. 14, 2026
In trying to deal with Ebright, Pocock found himself in a quandary.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
They will find themselves in the same stock-picking and market-timing quandaries they had initially set out to avoid—with potentially little ultimate benefit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
You wrote in from inboxes and DMs and social feeds with questions about everything from drink quandaries to annoying cousins.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2025
Osit wants us to leave the theater chewing over these quandaries, and he’s even willing to let us wonder whether his own movie is a net-positive on the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
Despite the show skipping over some of the moral quandaries that arise from dating a pair of brothers, she appreciates how it deals with significant issues.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2025
Hugging quandaries aside, when I saw a boy in these clothes, I would have to walk up and say hi.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
