Trilemma

Quick meaning: Trilemma is a noun meaning A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.

Meaning

A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.

More Meanings

1. A situation in which a choice must be made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at the same time.
2. (logic) 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.

Example Sentences

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.

In computing, the unconquerable trilemma is embodied in the well-known CAP theorem for distributed systems, also called Brewer’s CAP theorem. This states that any distributed database can only attain two of three guarantees: consistency, availability and partition tolerance.

And in anticipation of it, while he [Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger] declares at one moment that it would be profane to limit Divine Providence to an alternative, he affirms in the next that there can be no harm whatever in shutting it up to a supposed exhaustive trilemma.

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."

Word Forms

• trilemmas
• trilemmata

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include quadrilemma, dilemma, polylemma, conundrum, issue, truel.

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