mindmap root((困境)) predicament suggests a difficult situation usually offering no satisfactory or easy solution: the ~ posed by increasing automation. dilemma implies a predicament presenting a choice between equally unpleasant or unacceptable alternatives: faced with the ~ of putting him in a nursing home or caring for him ourselves. quandary stresses the puzzlement and perplexity of one faced by a dilemma: in a ~ about how to repair it. plight suggests an unfortunate or trying situation: a study of the ~ of the homeless. fix, jam are informal equivalent of plight but are more likely to suggest involvement through some error, fault, or wrongdoing: constantly getting their son out of some ~; in a real financial ~ now that she's lost her job. pickle implies a particularly distressing or sorry plight: conflicting obligations that that put me in a real ~.