n.
- A situation, especially an unpleasant, troublesome, or trying one, from which extrication is difficult. See Usage Note at dilemma.
- Logic. One of the basic states or classifications described by Aristotle into which all things can be placed; a category.
[Middle English, class, category, from Old French, from Late Latin praedicāmentum (translation of Greek katēgoriā , from katēgoreuein, to speak against, signify, predicate), from Latin praedicāre, to proclaim publicly, predicate. See preach.]
predicamental pre·dic'a·men'tal (-mĕn'tl) adj.predicamentally pre·dic'a·men'tal·ly adv.
SYNONYMS predicament, plight, quandary, jam, fix, pickle. These nouns refer to a situation from which it is difficult to free oneself. A predicament is a problematic situation about which one does not know what to do: "Werner finds himself suddenly in a most awkward predicament" (Thomas Carlyle). A plight is a bad or unfortunate situation: The report examined the plight of homeless people. A quandary is a state of perplexity, especially about what course of action to take: "Having captured our men, we were in a quandary how to keep them" (Theodore Roosevelt). Jam and fix are less formal terms that refer to predicaments from which it is difficult to escape: kids who were in a jam with the authorities; "If we get left on this wreck we are in a fix" (Mark Twain). An informal term, a pickle is a disagreeable, embarrassing, or troublesome predicament: "I could see no way out of the pickle I was in" (Robert Louis Stevenson).
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