predicament
Americannoun
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an unpleasantly difficult, perplexing, or dangerous situation.
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a class or category of logical or philosophical predication.
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Archaic. a particular state, condition, or situation.
noun
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a perplexing, embarrassing, or difficult situation
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obsolete logic one of Aristotle's ten categories of being
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archaic a specific condition, circumstance, state, position, etc
Synonym Usage
Predicament, dilemma, plight, quandary refer to unpleasant or puzzling situations. Predicament and plight stress more the unpleasant nature, quandary and dilemma the puzzling nature of the situation. Predicament and plight are sometimes interchangeable; plight, however, though originally meaning peril or danger, is seldom used today except laughingly: When his suit wasn't ready at the cleaners, he was in a terrible plight. Predicament, though likewise capable of being used lightly, may also refer to a really crucial situation: Stranded in a strange city without money, he was in a predicament. Dilemma, in popular use, means a position of doubt or perplexity in which one is faced by two equally undesirable alternatives: the dilemma of a hostess who must choose between offending her anti-drinking guests or disappointing those who expected cocktails. Quandary is the state of mental perplexity of one faced with a difficult situation: There seemed to be no way out of the quandary.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of predicament
First recorded in 1350–1400; 1580–90 predicament for def. 1; Middle English, from Late Latin praedicāmentum “something predicated, asserted,” derivative of praedicāre. See predicate, -ment
Explanation
If you're engaged to get married but suddenly fall in love with someone else, you have gotten yourself into quite a predicament. A predicament is a difficult, confusing, and unpleasant situation. The Greek word that predicament originally descends from means "a state of being." Which makes sense considering the words that sound like predicate are all about states of being––predict, or say what's going to happen in the future, and predicate the second part of a sentence that's led by the verb. Think of predicament as an unpleasant state of being.
Vocabulary lists containing predicament
In a Pickle: Words for When You're in Trouble
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List 3
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World Without Fish
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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:
The scene underscores Siebel Newsom’s predicament as her husband positions himself as Trump’s chief antagonist and prepares for a possible 2028 White House run.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Perhaps one man writing it leads to other men identifying with the individual’s predicament and following up with a letter of their own.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
It’s tempting to see their predicament as our own.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
Here the author acknowledges that his earlier portraits of Epstein “dealt insufficiently with the anti-Semitism Brian always faced” and understated “his predicament as a gay man in a savagely homophobic world.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Her hands trembled and her heartbeat quickened, for she was frightened, not so much of the wolves, who were shy and many harpoon-shots away, but because of her desperate predicament.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
Just as Murrin was trying to get the Supreme Court’s attention, the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a bill to fix predicaments like the one Murrin faced.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Nearly a week has passed and, despite American claims of victory, the predicaments facing the president have not changed.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
Some faced worse storage predicaments than I did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
They reflect honestly on their predicaments and are encouraged to view the upcoming dance in terms that prioritize how their daughters need to view them: as potential promise-keepers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2024
At least the heat had less bite and the humidity had dropped to tolerable levels, so I was able to hang out on the sidewalk and think about all my predicaments.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
