problematic
/ˌpɹɒb.ləˈmæt.ɪk/US/ˌpɹɑ.bləˈmæt.ɪk/
problematic adjective: difficult to overcome, solve, or decide.
Adjective
problematic (comparative more problematic, superlative most problematic)
- Difficult to overcome, solve, or decide.
- And the most problematic thing of all is that it is impossible for me even to know and tell you their names, unless one of them happens to be a playwright.1993, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant, “Justice and Duty (i): Socrates Speaks at his Trial: the Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), revised edition...
- However, estimating what consumers will pay in the future is problematic.2010, The Future of Energy Use
- Not settled, uncertain, of uncertain outcome; debatable, questionable, open to doubt.
- The strangeness of hiring undocumented Mexican women as domestics, many of whom were no older than fifteen, seemed strange to me. It was this strangeness that raised the topic of domestic service as a question and made problematic what had previously been taken for granted.1992, Mary Romero, “Intersection of Biography and History: My Intellectual Journey”, in Maid in the U.S.A., Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 1
- a problematic analysis
- Synonyms:
- doubtful, dubious, questionable, controversial, uncertain
- Contributing (especially if subtly) to discrimination (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or ageism).
- Only affirming the possibility that a predicate be actualised.
Noun
problematic (plural problematics)
- A problem or difficulty in a particular field of study.
- The seemingly intractable problematic of essentialism versus antiessentialism and primordialism versus circumstantialism endemic to identity analysis today.2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 141
- However, for those who come to India’s railway history for the first time, perhaps via knowledge of other countries’ railway histories with which they want to make India-based comparisons or in pursuit of a particular problematic—for example the role of railways in economic development—this chapter...2012 August 3, John Hurd, Ian J. Kerr, India’s Railway History: A Research Handbook (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section Two: South Asia; 27), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 1
problematic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
problematic in Hindi
- problematic
- मुश्किल muśkil
problematic in Tamil
- ஐயப்பாடான, சிக்கலான
problematic in Urdu
- problematic
- مشکل muśkil, کٹھن kaṭhin
problematic in Bengali
- সমস্যাসঙ্কুল, অনিশ্চিত
More languagesFewer languages
- problematic in Telugu
- సమస్యాత్మకమైనది
- problematic in Malayalam
- കണ്ടറിയേണ്ടിയിരിക്കുന്ന, സംശയമായ, തർക്കവിഷയകമായ, പരിഹാരം കാണാൻ വിഷമമായ
- problematic in Kannada
- ಸಮಸ್ಯಾತ್ಮಕ, ತೊಡಕಾದ, ಸಂದಿಗ್ಧ, ಕ್ಲಿಷ್ಟ
Examples of problematic in a sentence
- it portends a problematic future for the movement
- The station is blessed with a cafe and staff accommodation, as it's an important crew changeover point, although this can be problematic when services are late.2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79:
Synonyms of problematic
- doubtful
- dubious
- questionable
- controversial
- uncertain
- difficult
- troublesome
- complicated
- complex
- involved
Antonyms
Forms of problematic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more problematic |
| superlative | most problematic |
| Noun | |
| plural | problematics |
Origin of problematic
Borrowed from Middle French problématique, from Late Latin problematicus, from Ancient Greek προβληματικός (problēmatikós), from πρόβλημα (próblēma, “outjutting, barrier, problem”), from προβάλλω (probállō, “I throw, place before”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + βάλλω (bállō, “I throw, place”). By surface analysis, problem + -atic.
Words formed from problematic
Questions about problematic
- What does problematic mean?
- Problematic means difficult to overcome, solve, or decide.
- What is problematic in Hindi?
- Problematic in Hindi is मुश्किल (muśkil). See Problematic meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use problematic in a sentence?
- it portends a problematic future for the movement
- What part of speech is problematic?
- Problematic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce problematic?
- Problematic is pronounced /ˌpɹɒb.ləˈmæt.ɪk/ (UK).
Words near problematic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: problematic (page history and authors); मुश्किल (Hindi) (page history and authors); problematic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); مشکل (Urdu) (page history and authors); problematic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); problematic (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); problematic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); problematic (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: “problematic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/problematic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.