predicament

predicament, dilemma, quandary, plight, scrape, fix, jam, pickle can all denote a situation from which one does or can extricate himself only with difficulty.

Predicament carries the implication that the situation constitutes a problem for those who are involved in it and may additionally imply lack of freedom to do what one wishes or finds essential for some reason, or it may imply deep perplexity as to ways out of the situation

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advice ... may be of such nature that it will be painful to reject and yet impossible to follow it; and in this predicament I conceive myself to be placed— Crabbe

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the predicament with which our civilization now finds itself confronted—the problem, namely, how to find healthy, happy leisure for all the working millions who are now being liberated by machines— L. P. Smith

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Dilemma applies to a situation which constitutes a predicament from which one can escape only by a choice of equally unpleasant or unsatisfactory alternatives

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faced with a dilemma: if they discard obsolete headings, the librarians may suffer; and if they do not discard them, the user may be penalized— Lawler

}

Quandary differs from dilemma chiefly in its stress on puzzlement or perplexity; in fact, this implication is often so emphasized that the suggestion of a dilemma or an unavoidable choice between alternatives is lost or obscured

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he was in a quandary as to how he could keep his appointment

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all his quandaries terminated in the same catastrophe; a compromise— Disraeli

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The remaining words all definitely imply a difficulty, often a very disagreeable situation. Plight suggests an unfortunate, trying, or unhappy situation

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the plight in which the world finds itself today— Hobson

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the plight of the ten million forgotten men and women living at or below the destitution level— Crossman

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Scrape applies to a specific difficulty in which one is involved through one's own fault; often it suggests a being in disgrace or disfavor

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he escapes from trouble only to become idiotically conceited; and . . . plunges dementedly into a more ghastly scrape—Swinnerton

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Fix and jam are somewhat casual terms that stress involvement and entanglement from which extrication is difficult

Fix and jam are somewhat casual terms that stress involvement and entanglement from which extrication is difficult

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he will be in a fix if he doesn't settle his debts

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{

they get sick and it puts them in a jam and they end up under a pile of bills— Basso

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Pickle applies to a particularly distressing or sorry plight

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but when I was left ashore in Melbourne I was in a pretty pickle. I knew nobody, and I had no money— Shaw

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Analogous words: *state, situation, condition, posture: pass, pinch, strait, emergency, exigency, juncture