Word.ws English Dictionary

Morton's fork

Morton's fork noun: a false dilemma in which contradictory arguments lead to the same (unpleasant) conclusion.

Noun

Morton's fork (plural Morton's forks)

  1. A false dilemma in which contradictory arguments lead to the same (unpleasant) conclusion.
  2. A coup in contract bridge that forces an opponent to choose between letting declarer establish extra tricks in the suit led, or losing the opportunity to win any trick in the suit led.

Forms of Morton's fork

pluralMorton's forks

Origin of Morton's fork

Said to have originated with the collecting of taxes by John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury in the late 15th century, who held that a man living modestly must be saving money and could therefore afford taxes, whereas one living extravagantly was obviously rich and could still afford them.

Questions about Morton's fork

What does Morton's fork mean?
Morton's fork means a false dilemma in which contradictory arguments lead to the same (unpleasant) conclusion.
What part of speech is Morton's fork?
Morton's fork is a noun.
What is the plural of Morton's fork?
The plural of Morton's fork is Morton's forks.

Words near Morton's fork in the dictionary

  1. Morton code
  2. Morton codes
  3. Morton County
  4. Morton on the Hill
  5. Morton Plains
  6. Morton's fork
  7. Morton's forks
  8. Morton's neuroma
  9. Morton's neuromas
  10. Morton's neuromata
  11. Morton's syndrome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Morton's fork (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Morton's fork.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/morton%27s_fork. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.