Catch-22

//ˌkætʃ ˌtwɛnti ˈtuː//

Synonyms for "catch-22" (12 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (3)

Noun(2 words)

Strong matches (3)

Related words (6)

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

1 relation types

Related terms

3 entries

Translations

20 translations across 10 languages.

Powered by Wiktionary

Bulgarian

2 entries
  • Параграф 22 noun (difficult situation)
  • параграф 22 noun (difficult situation)

Czech

2 entries
  • Hlava 22 noun (difficult situation)
  • Hlava XXII noun (difficult situation)

Esperanto

1 entries
  • dilemo noun (difficult situation)

German

4 entries
  • Dilemma noun (difficult situation)
  • Sackgasse noun (difficult situation)
  • Teufelskreis noun (difficult situation)
  • Zwickmühle noun (difficult situation)

Hungarian

3 entries
  • a 22-es csapdája noun (difficult situation)
  • csapdahelyzet noun (difficult situation)
  • kilátástalan/megoldhatatlan helyzet noun (difficult situation)

Polish

3 entries
  • Paragraf 22 noun (difficult situation)
  • błędne koło noun (difficult situation)
  • paradoks literacki noun (difficult situation)

Portuguese

1 entries
  • beco sem saída noun (difficult situation)

Spanish

1 entries
  • problema circular noun (difficult situation)

Swedish

1 entries
  • moment 22 noun (difficult situation)

Turkish

1 entries
  • kısırdöngü noun (difficult situation)

Sample sentences

4 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

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.

Source: wiktionary

Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.

Source: wiktionary

Overall, the subgrouping issue in S[ino-]T[ibetan] studies is plagued by a familiar Catch-22. Until a more complete reconstruction of P[roto-]S[ino-]T[ibetan] exists, it is difficult to accurately identify shared innovations. Yet, without a clear subgrouping, it is difficult to properly weight and evaluate data from the daughter languages in order to refine PST reconstructions.

Source: wiktionary

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.

Source: wiktionary

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.