predicament
Americannoun
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predicaments
plural
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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:
Andrea, a 32-year-old mother who declined to give her surname because she felt ashamed of her predicament, tried to reinvent herself by starting a catering business after the stationary shop where she worked shut down.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
There’s no moral gotcha — no resentment toward the character or the predicament they find themselves in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
But the secondhand programs won’t solve the industry’s sustainability predicament if it doesn’t stop intentionally overproducing clothes with the goal of putting leftover stock on sale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Now Trump, and the Iranians, find themselves in a familiar predicament.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
He was obnoxiously cheerful in the face of our predicament.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
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
Some faced worse storage predicaments than I did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
Now, like two bottle rockets veering wildly off course, the NFL franchises cross paths again and face similar predicaments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2025
When you’re barely making ends meet, you can only wish to be any degree well-off and, therefore, be open to watching why that life comes with its predicaments, mainly having to do with ego.
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2025
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.
