trilemma
Pronunciation: /tɹaɪˈlɛmə/
The English word “trilemma” has 3 meanings listed here.
noun
- A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.
- A situation in which a choice must be made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at the same time.
- An argument containing three alternatives, jointly exhaustive either under any condition(s) or under all condition(s) consistent with the universe of discourse of that argument, that each imply the same conclusion.
Etymology
The word is modelled on dilemma, with di- (“two, twice, double”) replaced by tri- (“three”), equivalent to tri- + lemma.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.