Stymie vs Dilemma - What's the difference?
stymie | dilemma |
An obstacle or obstruction.
(golf) A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green.
To thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck.
* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=January 21, author=Joyce Cohen, title=Beauty in the Eye of the Renter, work=New York Times
, passage=I was making such a drama in my head it was stymieing me. }}
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 stymie and dilemma
is that stymie is an obstacle or obstruction 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 stymie
is to thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck.stymie
English
Alternative forms
* stimy, stymyNoun
(en noun)Verb
(d)- They had lost the key, and the lock stymied the first three locksmiths they called.
citation
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
