Word of the DaySaturday, July 15, 2006
quandary
\KWAHN-duh-ree; -dree\ , noun:1.
A state of difficulty, perplexity, doubt, or uncertainty.
Quotes:
Don . . . told me of the quandary that the authorities were in. Should the ruins be left untouched or should they be reconstructed for a new wave of tourists?
-- Benjamin Hopkins, "How to avoid the tourists in Peru", Times (London), May 6, 2000
The school commissioners . . . were in a quandary over the needful size of an "open-air playground."
-- Jacob A. Riis, The Battle with the Slum
Once or twice as I stood waiting there for things to accomplish themselves, I could not resist an impulse to laugh at my miserable quandary.
-- H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau
Origin:
Quandary is of unknown origin.
