Other forms: dilemmas
A dilemma is a choice between two options when you want neither of them. Report a friend or cover for them. Pay for a repair that costs more than the car is worth, or scrap a car that still runs.
The whole point is that both ways out hurt. A dilemma is not merely a hard problem or a big decision; if one choice is clearly better, you have a decision. The word came into English from logic, where a dilemma is an argument that boxes an opponent into two alternatives, and the two alternatives are still called horns — you are on the horns of a dilemma, and slipping out by finding a third way is going between the horns. Everyday English kept that shape. A moral dilemma is the commonest pairing, and ethical dilemma runs it close.
1nounquandaryA choice between two courses of action, both of them unwelcome.
“She faced the dilemma of losing her job or moving her family across the country.”
synonyms: quandary, predicament
2noundilemmaIn logic, an argument that forces someone to choose between two alternatives, each of which damages their case.
“The whole debate turned on a dilemma neither speaker could answer.”
dilemma is a difficult choice.
Dilemma reached English in 1523 from Latin, and Latin had it from Ancient Greek δίλημμα, an ambiguous proposition: di-, 'having two of', plus lemma, 'a premise'. It was the name of a debating trap built out of two premises, and the trap is still exactly what the word means.
Proto-Indo-European
*dwóh₁
Ancient Greek
δίλημμα — ambiguous proposition
Latin
dilemma
English, today
dilemma
Built from
First attested 1523, from Latin dilemma, from Ancient Greek δίλημμα (“ambiguous proposition”), from δι- (“having two of”) + λῆμμα (“premise, proposition”), equivalent to di- + lemma.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA