Dictionary

trilemma en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /tɹaɪˈlɛmə/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

The word is modelled on dilemma, with di- (“two, twice, double”) replaced by tri- (“three”), equivalent to tri- + lemma.

Meanings

1. A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.
   • 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. 1853 March, “Article I. The Mode of Baptism.”, in The True Baptist, volume I, number 3, Jackson, Miss.: Published by the editor, →OCLC, page 76:
2. A situation in which a choice must be made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at the same time.
   • The trilemma states that it is impossible for national governments to have all three of the following institutions in place at the same time: an autonomous monetary policy, a fixed foreign exchange rate, and full capital mobility. […] The present context of economic and political fragmentation, however, suggests that the best, if not only, way to deal with fragmentation under the two trilemmata – the Mundellian and the one described by Rodrik – is anything but national self-sufficiency. 2022, Hans-Michael Trautwein, “Globalization, Fragmentation and the Evolution of Economic Thinking”, in The Review of Keynesian Studies, volume 4, Chiba: Keynes Society Japan, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2026, pages 16 and 18:
   • The UK government has forced itself into a trilemma in which it has adopted three positions, only two of which can be achieved at any one time: to avoid a hard border within the island of Ireland; for the UK as whole to leave both the customs union and the single market; and to rule out any special arrangements for Northern Ireland in relation to a customs union and single market. 2018 April 18, Stephen Farry, Sorcha Eastwood, “Good Friday Agreement: why it matters in Brexit”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), ukandeu.ac.uk:
   • At the most general level, policymakers in open economies face a macroeconomic trilemma: 1. to stabilize the exchange rate; 2. to enjoy free international capital mobility; 3. to engage in a monetary policy oriented toward domestic goals. Because only two out of the three objectives can be mutually consistent, policymakers must decide which one to give up. 2004 March, Maurice Obstfeld, Jay C. Shambaugh, Alan M. Taylor, “The Trilemma in History: Tradeoffs among Exchange Rates, Monetary Policies, and Capital Mobility”, in Econometrics Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2017, page 1:
   • 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. 2023 June 2, Charles Xie, “Trilemma Trade-Offs: A New CAP Theorem For Vector Databases Has Emerged”, Forbes Technology Council, in Forbes, Forbes Media, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2023:
3. 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.
   • 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. 1862 July 1, “Art. VII.—(1.) Kirche und Kirchen, Papstthum und Kirchenstaat. Historisch-politische Bertrachtungen von Joh. Jos. Ign. v. Döllinger. Zweiter unveränderter Abdruck. München: 1861. (2.) The Church and the Churches; or, The Papacy and The Temporal Power. An Historical and Political Review. By Dr. Döllinger. Translated by William Bernard MacCabe. London: 1862.”, in The British Quarterly Review, volume XXXVI, number LXXI, London: Jackson, Walford, & Hodder 18, St. Paul's Churchyard and Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers' Hall Court; Edinburgh: W. Oliphant & Co.; Glasgow: J[ames] MacLehose; Dublin: J. Robertson, →OCLC, page 156:
   • In three instances, the format of a trilemma, consisting of three obviously contradictory statements, were chosen to induce a more in-depth deliberation and careful consideration of the item response. […] A questionnaire was submitted to further analysis if certain requirements were fulfilled: (1) the multiple choice item regarding mind–body, the three trilemmata, and the multiple choice item regarding belief in God were answered, and (2) fewer than four missing data from the core of 49 remaining items. 2007 September, Jochen Fahrenberg, Marcus Cheetham, “Assumptions About Human Nature and the Impact of Philosophical Concepts on Professional Issues […]”, in Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, volume 14, number 3, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 185 and 187:
   • 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." 1851, [James William Gilbart], Logic for the Million: A Familiar Exposition of the Art of Reasoning, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, →OCLC, part IV (The Points of Reasoning), section V (Reasoning by Compound Syllogism), subsection III (The Trilemma), page 324:
   • The following constitute an inconsistent triad (which we may call ‘Frege’s trilemma’): (i) The truth-equivalence (ii) The functional reading of negation (iii) The truth-value gap thesis concerning the thoughts expressed by sentences containing bearerless names. […] What were called above Frege’s and Dummett’s trilemmata show that we cannot maintain all that Frege says about truth. 2010, Peter Milne, “Frege’s folly: bearerless names and Basic Law V”, in Michael Potter, Tom Ricketts, editors, The Cambridge Companion to Frege (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 477 and 504:

Forms

Coordinates

tetralemma · dilemma · polylemma

Deriveds

Münchhausen trilemma · Agrippa's trilemma · Lewis's trilemma · trilemmatic

Relateds

lemma

Translations (24)

gl trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · fr trilemme (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · nl trilemma (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · pt trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · fi trilemma ((logic) argument containing three alternatives) · ru трилемма ((logic) argument containing three alternatives) · cs trilema ((logic) argument containing three alternatives) · id trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · eo trilemo (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · de Trilemma (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · ko 트릴레마 (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · ja 三すくみ (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · gl trilema ((logic) argument containing three alternatives) · ru трилемма (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · vi tam nan (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · es trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · ka ტრილემა (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · eo trilemo ((logic) argument containing three alternatives) · cmn 三难困境 (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · it trilemma (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · cs trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · fi trilemma (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · ca trilema (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options) · el τρίλημμα (circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options)

wikipedia: project management triangle