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conundrum - 4 dictionary results

co⋅nun⋅drum

  [kuh-nuhn-druhm]
Use conundrum in a Sentence
–noun
1. a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper.
2. anything that puzzles.
Origin:
1590–1600; pseudo-L word of obscure orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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co·nun·drum   (kə-nŭn'drəm)   
n.  
  1. A riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun.
  2. A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma: "the conundrum, thus far unanswered, of achieving full employment without inflation" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Conundrum

Co*nun"drum\, n. [Origin unknown.]

1. 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.

Or pun ambiguous, or conundrum quaint. --J. Philips.

2. A question to which only a conjectural answer can be made.

Do you think life is long enough to let me speculate on conundrums like that? --W. Black.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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conundrum 
1596, Oxford University slang for "pedant," also "whim," etc., later (1790) "riddle, puzzle," also spelled quonundrum; the sort of ponderous pseudo-Latin word that was once the height of humor in learned circles.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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