What's the difference between conundrum and dilemma?

Conundrum


Definition:

  • (n.) A kind of riddle based upon some fanciful or fantastic resemblance between things quite unlike; a puzzling question, of which the answer is or involves a pun.
  • (n.) A question to which only a conjectural answer can be made.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The spinal form of MS is a clinical conundrum, the solution of which may yield many answers; to be certain that it is MS and not another disease causing the myelopathy is often difficult.
  • (2) KR: She was truly in a conundrum because without the app, she felt too worthless to try and fix it by installing an update.
  • (3) Ben Carson: inside the worldview of a political conundrum Read more One such priority, he said, was protecting the “religious freedom” of people who believe on religious grounds that marriage is “between one man and one woman”.
  • (4) Tony Goldstone , of the MRC Clinical Science Centre at Imperial College London, scanned the brains of people who skipped meals and found mechanisms at work that could help explain the conundrum.
  • (5) Energy policy's central conundrum today is how to go green at the lowest possible cost.
  • (6) A major constraint is the implementation conundrum.
  • (7) On the road to 2015, all political parties will need to tackle this conundrum if there is going to be a seismic shift away from traditional thinking about how health and social care are delivered.
  • (8) Needless to say, BoKlok's brains have grappled with the conundrum.
  • (9) But the need to change and to integrate health and social care presents a huge conundrum for policymakers, given that such reforms remain "notoriously" controversial and unpopular with the public.
  • (10) These comparable characteristics may help explain a continuing conundrum in the responses to disorder literature: the loose coupling between crime and fear levels at the local level.
  • (11) To explore this conundrum, we need to start by looking at what happiness actually means.
  • (12) It is concluded that properly conducted cross-cultural research can yield results which can help to resolve the conundrum of depression and respond to the challenge which depression poses to the society, to public health authorities and to the individuals who suffer from it.
  • (13) The anser to this conundrum, that the kidney was sometimes the cause and sometimes the consequence of circulatory disease was suggested by Mahomed's discovery of essential hypertension but confirmation had to await the invention of a clinically useful sphygmomanometer.
  • (14) Impossible to count.” He added: “No one knows.” The city has spent years trying to resolve this conundrum.
  • (15) Newspapers in the US had never before had to deal with the conundrum of what to do with leaked documents that had been procured illegally by people not in official positions.
  • (16) Labour, which has yet to resolve its own testing conundrums, will have to confront these challenges one day too.
  • (17) The British government has given its first official hint that it hopes the Irish external border will provide the solution to one of the most vexing conundrums of Brexit: how to pull up the immigration drawbridge without installing a “hard border” of customs posts and passport checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
  • (18) That’s the conundrum.” In a statement on Wednesday, Farron said the time had come for a deputy leader, given the party had elected a number of new women MPs when only men were elected in 2015.
  • (19) As the election haze clears, Trump’s China conundrum will become clear | Jonathan Fenby Read more That’s Trump’s first contribution to a Pacific agenda: an increase in South Koreans and Japanese who believe they should be nuclear-armed because American cannot be relied on, especially with North Korea fine-tuning its missile capacity.
  • (20) As the election haze clears, Trump’s China conundrum will become clear | Jonathan Fenby Read more Zhang Xiangchen, China’s deputy international trade representative, also told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday that a broad consensus of academics, business people and government officials have concluded that China is not manipulating its yuan currency to gain an unfair trade advantage, as Trump has charged.

Dilemma


Definition:

  • (n.) An argument which presents an antagonist with two or more alternatives, but is equally conclusive against him, whichever alternative he chooses.
  • (n.) A state of things in which evils or obstacles present themselves on every side, and it is difficult to determine what course to pursue; a vexatious alternative or predicament; a difficult choice or position.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The following case highlights the diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas encountered in a middle-aged patient who presented with dementia and apathetic hyperthyroidism.
  • (2) The dilemmas faced by the genetic counsellor are discussed in this variable autosomal dominant condition.
  • (3) Dilemmas of trust, confidentiality, and professional competence highlight the limits of professional ethical codes.
  • (4) When faced with a big dilemma, the time-honoured tradition of politicians is to order an inquiry, and that is what Browne expects.
  • (5) This paper raises other issues for consideration, including problems associated with HIV testing, confidentiality, informed consent and the dilemmas facing those involved in the treatment of patients suffering from HIV infection.
  • (6) Various forms of inactive data storage and archiving in machine-readable form are available to address this dilemma, yet these solutions can create even more difficult problems.
  • (7) For Bush Sr, the dilemma is all the more agonising as some of the White House advisers he now criticises are former employees he bequeathed to his son.
  • (8) The patient with a cholesteatoma in an only hearing ear presents a management dilemma: how best to treat the patient to minimize the chances of developing a severe hearing loss in that ear.
  • (9) The dilemma focuses on whether the obliteration or removal of the cystic areas will benefit or cause further deterioration of the patient's condition.
  • (10) when a family is in conflict often creates a serious ethical dilemma for the family physician.
  • (11) Respondents did not deal with the simulated ethical problems in a uniform manner and often tended to respond more to specific details of a case rather than the overall ethical dilemma posed.
  • (12) This article examines AIDS- and HIV-related concerns in women with a focus on the personal dilemmas for the practicing psychologist, problems in health behavior advocacy, and methods and pitfalls in modifying sexual behaviors.
  • (13) Because many of these issues are unresolved, it is important for health professionals to be aware of current professional standards and guidelines, as well as to consult with the hospital's attorney or risk manager when confronted with a legal or ethical dilemma.
  • (14) These dilemmas were often "caused" by other group members (general practitioners or nurses), e.g., by not keeping appointment times or by not sharing information with patients.
  • (15) Solitary abnormalities on bone scan or chest film serve as an excellent examples of this dilemma.
  • (16) Corbyn’s ‘new politics’ is neither hateful nor pure: it’s complicated | John Harris Read more Their dilemma is plain: if they make a stand against what is happening, they stand accused of disloyalty by Corbyn’s supporters; but if they go along with it, they are complicit in Labour’s probable disintegration when voters realise the party has been taken over by people they can never vote for.
  • (17) Four cases of right lower quadrant abscess, each a clinical diagnostic dilemma, were recognized as abscesses surrounding a perforated viscus by application of the "coffee bean" sign on sonographic examination.
  • (18) This dilemma is aggravated by the loss from the work force of graduate nurses who fail the registered nurse licensure examination.
  • (19) Diagnosis of cecal diverticulitis remains a dilemma.
  • (20) This paper considers the dilemmas and tensions as reported, and on that basis certain policy issues are tabulated and presented.