Flounder vs Dilemma - What's the difference?
flounder | dilemma |
A European species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, European flounder, .
(North America) Any of various flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae or Bothidae.
A bootmaker's tool for crimping boot fronts.
(rfi, the bootmaker's tool)
To flop around as a fish out of water.
To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance.
To act clumsily or confused; to struggle or be flustered.
* Sir W. Hamilton
* 1996 , , Virago Press, paperback edition, page 136
English nouns with irregular plurals
A circumstance in which a choice must be made between two or more alternatives that seem equally undesirable.
* Jonathan Swift
A difficult circumstance or problem.
(logic) A type of syllogism of the form "if A is true then B is true; if C is true then D is true; either A or C is true; therefore either B or D is true".
(rhetoric) Offering to an opponent a choice between two (equally unfavorable) alternatives.
*
As nouns the difference between flounder and dilemma
is that flounder is a european species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, european flounder, while dilemma is dilemma (a situation with two (or more) alternatives to choose from, and where all alternatives are unsatisfactory or undesirable ).As a verb flounder
is to flop around as a fish out of water.flounder
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) floundre, from . Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.Noun
(en-noun)External links
* (wikipedia "flounder")Etymology 2
Possibly from the noun. Possibly from (founder) or from (etyl) . See other terms beginning with fl , such as (flutter), (flitter), (float), (flap), (flub), (flip)Verb
(en verb)- Robert yanked Connie's leg vigorously, causing her to flounder and eventually fall.
- They have floundered on from blunder to blunder.
- He gave a good speech, but floundered when audience members asked questions he could not answer well.
- He is assessing directions, but he is not lost, not floundering .
Usage notes
Frequently confused with the verb founder. The difference is one of severity; floundering'' (struggling to maintain a position) comes before ''foundering (losing it completely by falling, sinking or failing).References
dilemma
English
Noun
(en-noun)- A strong dilemma in a desperate case! / To act with infamy, or quit the place.
Usage notes
* The sense of a difficult circumstance or problem is considered non-standard[by whom?]. * Occasionally spelled/misspelled as dilemna'', perhaps originally via false analogy with words such as ''condemn'', ''solemn'', and ''hymn . This spelling has been reportedly taught in many regions of Great Britain and the United States as well as around the world; and can be found in the works of many well-known authors (e.g. Watts, Defroe & Goldsmith).World Wide Words: Dilemma