dilemma

1 a situation in which one has to choose between two or more equally unsatisfactory choices <faced with a dilemma whether to spend the night out in the cold or go inside and face his father> Synonyms catch-22, double bind, quandary Related Words deadlock, impasse, quagmire, stalemate, standoff; knot, problem; bind, difficulty, fix, hole, jam, pickle, pinch, plight, predicament, spot Near Antonyms breeze, cinch, duck soup, snap

2 a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape <with home prices in a free fall, sellers were in a terrible dilemma> Synonyms bind, box, catch-22, corner, predicament, fix, hole, impasse, jackpot [chiefly West], jam, mire, pickle, quagmire, rabbit hole, rattrap, spot, sticky wicket, swampRelated Words difficulty, node; hot water, soup; pinch, plight, quandary, scrape, trouble; deadlock, halt, logjam, stalemate, standstill; clutch, crisis, crossroad, emergency, exigency, juncture, strait