conundrum
Americannoun
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conundrums
plural
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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.
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anything that puzzles.
noun
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a riddle, esp one whose answer makes a play on words
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a puzzling question or problem
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of conundrum
First recorded in 1590–1600; pseudo-Latin word of obscure origin
Explanation
The tricky word conundrum is used to describe a riddle or puzzle, sometimes including a play on words or pun. One of the most famous conundrums is the riddle of the Sphinx, famously in the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Oedipus encounters the Sphinx, a mythical beast, who asks him, "What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?" The answer is "A person": crawling as a child, walking as an adult, and using a cane in old age. The scary thing is that if the Sphinx asked you the riddle and you didn't know, she'd eat you!
Vocabulary lists containing conundrum
100 Top "SAT" Words
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In a Pickle: Words for When You're in Trouble
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Thus, the conundrum of Winfrey’s terribly consequential influence.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
Then there is the curious conundrum of British productivity.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
This underscores the conundrum of AI’s effect on pay.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Rising beef prices have been a vexing conundrum for the Trump administration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
But the real conundrum that heredity solves is much more general: What is the nature of instruction that allows an organism to build a nose—any nose—in the first place?
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Their work is a cultural bridge much like Ashitaka’s effort to bring the worlds of beasts and men together for a common cause, depicting what Miyazaki sees as one of humanism’s central conundrums.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, David Plotz, and special guest Stephen Colbert answer listeners’ conundrums of all kinds: the meaningful, the trivial, and the delightfully absurd.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2025
It’s something that almost never happens in the NFL because finding a new quarterback is one of the game’s most maddening conundrums.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025
Award-winning biographer Wilson approaches the life of Scottish writer Muriel Spark as a series of puzzles and conundrums to be teased out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
As to how she could be both dead and here, dream logic was untroubled by conundrums.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
