词为我用 - conundrum

词汇释义 

conundrum  TEM8  GRE

UK  /kəˈnʌn.drəm/ US  /kəˈnʌn.drəm/

1. noun, a confusing problem or question that is very difficult to solve 令人迷惑的难题；复杂难解的问题

2. noun, a question, usually involving a trick with words, that you ask for fun 谜语

词汇图表

外刊例句 

1. The flurry of warnings present a conundrum for some investors.(Reuters)

2. It falls into the attractive/unattractive conundrum, depending on one’s taste.(New York Times)

3. This year’s seven rookie experts are doing their preseason kitchen and digital training remotely, tinkering with turkey-cooking conundrums in their own kitchens.(Seattle Times)

4. Yet Apple is only one company and the bigger conundrum is baffling.

(The Guardian)

5.The crop would be in high demand internationally — perhaps the centerpiece of a new U.S. industry — if not for the regulatory conundrum in which growers operate.(Washington Post)

6. As Frankenstein’s dæmon famously menaced him, I will even “be with you on your wedding-night” — provided your wedding night is directly relevant to some employment conundrum.(New York Times)

7. The conversations are a sign of how federal agencies are grappling with a deep-rooted technology conundrum.(New York Times)

8. The ethical trade-offs create a conundrum for the company and society, Bloomberg wrote.(New York Times)

9. In 2013, still scarred by the financial crisis, federal regulators faced a conundrum.(Seattle Times)

10. Engineers at companies are tasked with the same conundrum if they fail to pay attention to older engineers.(Washington Post)

11. Such a conundrum was evident on Friday as stocks fell in response to stronger-than-expected U.S. payrolls data, which dampened expectations of a Fed rate cut.(Reuters)

12.The move to share technology underlines the conundrum facing Toyota and other global automakers, which are competing to develop new vehicle technologies including all-battery electric cars and self-driving cars, which require massive investment.(Reuters)

词汇搭配 

face, create, conundrum

词汇家族

conundrums

词汇来源 

1590s, an abusive term for a person, perhaps meaning "a pedant;" c. 1600, "a whim;" 1640s, "pun or word-play," a word of unknown origin, said in 17c. to be Oxford University slang. Perhaps the sort of ponderous mock-Latin word that was once the height of humor in learned circles; Skeat suggests Latin conandrum "a thing to be attempted" as the source. Also spelled quonundrum.From 1745 as "a riddle in which some odd resemblance is proposed between things quite unlike, the answer often involving a pun." (An example from 1745: "Why is a Sash-Window like a Woman in Labour? because 'tis full of Panes").

近义词 

puzzle, enigma, mystery, riddle, dilemma, difficulty, mystification, puzzlement, quandary, secret, why, perplexity, paradox

反义词 

simplicity, solution,explanation, elucidation, clarification, explication, answer