Trilemma
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.
"With all these dilemmas and trilemmas crowding the mind, if one did not know better, one might be tempted to doubt whether any such versions were ever made at all."
- 2 A situation in which a choice must be made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at the same time.
"At the most general level, policymakers in open economies face a macroeconomic trilemma: 1. to stabilize the exchange rate; 2. to enjoy free international capital mobility; 3. to engage in a monetary policy oriented toward domestic goals. Because only two out of the three objectives can be mutually consistent, policymakers must decide which one to give up."
- 3 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.
"It has been remarked as a characteristic of the late Sir Robert Peel, that in introducing his measures to the House of Commons, he often used the trilemma. "Three courses are before us—to go backward, to stand still, to go forward. We cannot go backward; we cannot stand still; we must, then, go forward.""
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"With all these dilemmas and trilemmas crowding the mind, if one did not know better, one might be tempted to doubt whether any such versions were ever made at all."
Etymology
The word is modelled on dilemma, with di- (“two, twice, double”) replaced by tri- (“three”).
Related phrases
More for "trilemma"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.