Word.ws English Dictionary

XY problem

XY problem noun: a communication problem where a person seeking help (for example, from a computing helpdesk) provides misleadingly incomplete information about the source of the problem and thus receives inaccurate or unhelpful suggestions about how to fix it.

Noun

XY problem (plural XY problems)

  1. A communication problem where a person seeking help (for example, from a computing helpdesk) provides misleadingly incomplete information about the source of the problem and thus receives inaccurate or unhelpful suggestions about how to fix it.

Forms of XY problem

pluralXY problems

Questions about XY problem

What does XY problem mean?
XY problem means a communication problem where a person seeking help (for example, from a computing helpdesk) provides misleadingly incomplete information about the source of the problem and thus receives inaccurate or unhelpful suggestions about how to fix it.
What part of speech is XY problem?
XY problem is a noun.
What is the plural of XY problem?
The plural of XY problem is XY problems.

Words near XY problem in the dictionary

  1. XXXXY syndrome
  2. XXXY syndrome
  3. XXY
  4. XXYY syndrome
  5. XY
  6. XY problem
  7. XY problems
  8. XY recorder
  9. XY recorders
  10. XY system
  11. xyelid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: XY problem (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: “XY problem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/xy_problem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.