Catch-22
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. idiomatic
"For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of Catch-22. alt-of
"Passengers may find themselves in a catch-22 situation, unable to buy a ticket for any number of reasons, ranging from an out-of-order ticket vending machine to a lengthy queue to use one, and yet then fall foul of the penalty fare regime."
Example
More examples"For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time."
Etymology
Coined by American author Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.