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Meaning of "trilemma" in the English dictionary

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DICTIONARY
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ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD TRILEMMA

Formed on the model of dilemma, from tri- + Greek lēmma assumption.
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Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.
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PRONUNCIATION OF TRILEMMA

trilemma  [traɪˈlɛmə] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF TRILEMMA

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Trilemma is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES TRILEMMA MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Trilemma

A trilemma is a difficult choice from three options, each of which is unacceptable or unfavourable. There are two logically equivalent ways in which to express a trilemma: it can be expressed as a choice among three unfavourable options, one of which must be chosen, or as a choice among three favourable options, only two of which are possible at the same time. The term derives from the much older term dilemma, a choice between two or more difficult or unfavourable alternatives. The earliest recorded use of the term was by the British preacher Philip Henry in 1672, and later, apparently independently, by the preacher Isaac Watts in 1725.

Definition of trilemma in the English dictionary

The definition of trilemma in the dictionary is a quandary posed by three alternative courses of action. Other definition of trilemma is an argument one of the premises of which is the disjunction of three statements from each of which the same conclusion is derived.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH TRILEMMA


agrostemma
ˌæɡrəʊˈstɛmə
analemma
ˌænəˈlɛmə
axilemma
ˌæksɪˈlɛmə
axolemma
ˌæksəˈlɛmə
condemner
kənˈdɛmə
dilemma
dɪˈlɛmə
emma
ˈɛmə
emmer
ˈɛmə
gemma
ˈdʒɛmə
hemmer
ˈhɛmə
lemma
ˈlɛmə
maremma
məˈrɛmə
neurilemma
ˌnjʊərɪˈlɛmə
neurolemma
ˌnjʊərəʊˈlɛmə
pip-emma
ˈpɪpˈɛmə
plasmalemma
ˌplæzməˈlɛmə
polylemma
ˌpɒlɪˈlɛmə
sarcolemma
ˌsɑːkəʊˈlɛmə
stemma
ˈstɛmə
tremor
ˈtrɛmə

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE TRILEMMA

trilateral
trilateralism
trilateralist
trilaterally
trilateration
trilbies
trilby
trilinear
trilineate
trilingual
trilingualism
trilingually
triliteral
triliteralism
trilith
trilithic
trilithon
trill
triller

WORDS THAT END LIKE TRILEMMA

ack-emma
comma
dhamma
digamma
gamma
Glomma
gramma
grandmamma
gumma
inverted comma
limma
mamma
momma
on the horns of a dilemma
Oxford comma
summa

Synonyms and antonyms of trilemma in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «trilemma» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF TRILEMMA

Find out the translation of trilemma to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of trilemma from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «trilemma» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

三元悖论
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

trilema
570 millions of speakers

English

trilemma
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

trilemma
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

trilemma
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

трилемма
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

trilema
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

trilemma
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

trilemme
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Trilemma
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Trilemma
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

トリレンマ
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

trilemma
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Trilemma
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

trilemma
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

வெறுக்கத்தக்க மூன்றில் ஒன்றைத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கும்
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

त्रैलिममा
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

Trilemma
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

trilemma
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

trilemma
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

трілемми
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

trilemma
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

τριλήμματος
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

trilemma
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

Trilemma
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

trilemma
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of trilemma

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «TRILEMMA»

The term «trilemma» is normally little used and occupies the 116.523 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Little used
46
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «trilemma» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of trilemma
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «trilemma».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «TRILEMMA» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «trilemma» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «trilemma» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about trilemma

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «TRILEMMA»

Discover the use of trilemma in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to trilemma and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Governance of International Banking: The Financial Trilemma
Applying game theory, this book develops a model of the financial trilemma to understand the co-ordination failure among regulators. It also provides governance solutions to overcome this co-ordination failure.
Dirk Schoenmaker, 2013
2
Trilemma: three major problems threatening world survival
Sintomas de um mundo doente. Havera um alerta antes da crise? Um relato da linha de frente da tecnologia. Reforma do sistema social. Reforma do sistema economico. Em busca de uma nova cultura.
Susumu Yoda, Denryoku Chūō Kenkyūjo (Tokyo, Japan), 1995
3
Trilemma
Maverick executive Lin Mere takes over as CEO for a new telecommunications company trying to compete with the big boys in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jennifer Mortimer, 2014
4
The trilemma in history: tradeoffs among exchange rates, ...
This paper studies the coherence of international interest rates over more than 130 years. The constraints implied by the trilemma are largely borne out by history.
Maurice Obstfeld, Jay C. Shambaugh, Alan M. Taylor, 2004
5
Unnatural Doubts: Epistemological Realism and the Basis of ...
2.4 AGRIPPA'S TRILEMMA One of the most ancient and most intuitive sceptical arguments is what we may call "Agrippa's trilemma," after the ancient sceptic who appears first to have given it formal expression.8 The idea behind it is ...
Michael Williams, 1996
6
Rescuing Justice and Equality
tute a trilemma, if one of the three stated desiderata must indeed be abandoned, then my solution in Chapter 2 to the original dilemma (one must choose between equality and Pareto) works only if and because it overrides freedom of ...
G. A Cohen, 2009
7
Good Kids, Tough Choices: How Parents Can Help Their ...
He had no interest in a trilemma option that blended what he saw as right with what he knew to be wrong. For him, the wrongness of radar detectors was a settled issue. His conundrum concerned whether to raise his strongly felt position  ...
Rushworth M. Kidder, 2010
8
Global Capital Markets: Integration, Crisis, and Growth
Our account of the evolution of capital mobility centers on the open-economy trilemma as a fundamental organizing concept. The exchange-rate regime is often seen as tightly constrained by the trilemma, which imposes a stark tradeoff among ...
Maurice Obstfeld, Alan M. Taylor, 2005
9
Litigation Logic: A Practical Guide to Effective Argument
a literal reading of §1001 violates the "spirit" of the Fifth Amendment because it places a "cornered suspect" in the "cruel trilemma" of admitting guilt, remaining silent, or falsely denying guilt. This "trilemma" is wholly of the guilty suspect's own  ...
Paul Bosanac, 2009
10
Paths of Public Innovation in the Global Age: Lessons from ...
Trilemma: situations in which the decision maker is faced with a choice of three ( at least more than two) unsatisfactory alternatives, that is, in which the available decisions about a given problem cannot be made in such a way as to solve the ...
N. Veggeland, 2007

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «TRILEMMA»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term trilemma is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Can we solve the global energy 'trilemma'?
That's my observation after reading World Energy Trilemma — a trilemma is a difficult choice among three competing or conflicting options. The just-published ... «GreenBiz, Jun 15»
2
Singapore's Social Compact Trilemma – The Dynamics of a …
Singapore's essential social compact trilemma is a highly developed ... state to nation as Singapore's key social compact trilemma remains painfully unresolved. «The Online Citizen, Feb 15»
3
The Democratic Trilemma: Is Democracy Possible?
One key part of this article is List's articulation of the democratic trilemma, which is a more general version of the Condorcet Theorem, applying to all collective ... «Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Feb 15»
4
Opinion: Greece's Tsipras faces impossible trilemma
Alexis Tsipras, likely to be Greece's next prime minister, will have to resolve the latest version of yet another impossible trinity: relax the economic squeeze, ... «MarketWatch, Jan 15»
5
Greek Elections, Democracy, Political Trilemma, and all that
Consider the following scenario. After a victory by the left-wing Syriza party, Greece's new government announces that it wants to renegotiate the terms of its ... «Social Europe Journal, Jan 15»
6
WEC releases World Energy Trilemma 2014 and warns on energy …
World Energy Council warns today's decision from investors could break sustainability of global energy system for coming years. WEC has conducted a report ... «CSP World, Nov 14»
7
World Energy Council: Energy Future Hinges upon Financing …
The study, “World Energy Trilemma: time to get real – the myths and realities of financing energy systems”, conducted with the global management consulting ... «Business Wire, Nov 14»
8
Symposium: Judge Sutton's trilemma
The next step in the controversy over same-sex marriage likely depends on Sutton, who faces a trilemma. There's a lot of speculation, but we don't know for sure ... «SCOTUSblog, Oct 14»
9
SYRIZA's painful trilemma
Occasionally, external limitations present themselves in the form of a “trilemma”, or an “impossible trinity”: Faced with three desired objectives, one can only have ... «Kathimerini, Sep 14»
10
Food security and Rodrik's trilemma
The Princeton don Dani Rodrik is one of the world's leading economists. He is a firm believer in and supporter of globalisation. However, he has also posed a ... «The Hindu, Aug 14»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Trilemma [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/trilemma>. Apr 2024 ».
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