a situation in which a person is frustrated by a paradoxical rule or set of circumstances that preclude any attempt to escape from them
a situation in which any move that a person can make will lead to trouble
What does Catch-22 mean? Coming from the novel of the same name, a Catch-22 is a situation where one is trapped by two contradictory conditions. It's more generally used to refer to a paradox or dilemma. Example: to get a certain job, you need work experience. But to get that work experience, you need to have had a job. It’s a Catch-22.
Figuratively, a “catch-22” is any absurd arrangement that puts a person in a double bind: for example, a person can't get a job without experience, but can't get experience without a job.
From a military regulation in a novel of the same name (1961) by U.S. novelist Joseph Heller (1923–99)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s an Israeli Catch-22 that we created for ourselves,” said Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
“The cross currents around next week’s earnings set up a Catch-22 for the AI complex,” he said in a recent earnings preview.
From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025
It's a Catch-22 situation - Delhi still wants to clinch a deal but also doesn't want to come across as buckling under Trump's pressure.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2025
Catch-22 doesn’t begin to explain how these policies are meant to act together to “make a real commitment to family well-being,” in Reynolds’ words.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
Catch-22 required that each censored letter bear the censoring officer’s name.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
The catch-22 is that while stem cell transplants can prevent this failure, the usual preparative chemotherapy or radiation can cause severe complications or even cancer.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2025
It’s kind of a catch-22 because we’re so exhausted and tired that, what do we do?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025
He had extensive contact with mental health services, but Sir Adrian said he was "caught in a catch-22" with no continuity of care.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2024
But they had a sort of a catch-22.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 28, 2023
As a result of the Armstrong decision, defendants who suspect racial bias on the part of prosecutors are trapped in a classic catch-22.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Catch-22’s unfilmable reputation came about in part because someone did try to film it once, in the form of Mike Nicholls’ 1970 feature, and the results were patchy at best.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 20, 2019
After Catch-22's painful revel in World War II, and M-A-S-H's super-sanguine romp in Korea, it was inevitable that someone should take up Viet Nam.
From Time Magazine Archive
After successful careers in advertising and on Wall Street, he does consulting work for Catch-22's amoral entrepreneur, Milo Minderbinder.
From Time Magazine Archive
Catch-22's insights penetrate the elliptical dialogue to show that wars are too often a children's crusade, fought by boys not old enough to vote or, sometimes, to think.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still, many Afghan refugees, like those from other countries, are trapped in a series of Catch-22s.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2022
“Publicists need to acknowledge that freelancers, we exist,” she said, and that they often are in Catch-22s where they can’t get event invites without assignments from editors but also can’t get an assignment without access.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2018
It chronicles a “Dreamer’s” lifelong efforts to navigate the absurdities and Catch-22s of our broken immigration system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2017
It all comes down to the many different Catch-22s of development.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2012
Definitions 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.
