Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Posing a problem; difficult to solve.
- adjective Open to doubt; debatable.
- adjective Not settled; unresolved or dubious.
- noun Something that poses a problem or difficulty.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of the nature of a problem; questionable; uncertain; unsettled; disputable; doubtful.
- In logic, of the nature of a question, possible or doubtful.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having the nature of a problem; not shown in fact; questionable; uncertain; unsettled; doubtful.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective posing a
problem ; difficult toovercome orsolve - adjective
debatable ; open todoubt - adjective
unresolved ordubious - adjective doubtful or uncertain in its outcome
- noun A
problem ordifficulty in a particular field of study
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
- adjective open to doubt or debate
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word problematic.
Examples
-
This is why the modern broken world only sees the problematic: the ˜problematic™ is that which can be addressed and solved with a technique, e.g., changing a flat tire on an automobile or downloading security software to fix a virus on one's computer.
Gabriel (-Honoré) Marcel Treanor, Brian 2004
-
But a second aspect of “feminism” (I find the term problematic because of this very dichotomy) that seems at least as important is fostering values that challenge that power structure, and which for whatever natural and cultural reasons are loosely (though only loosely) associated with femininity.
-
I find the term problematic only in that I think all fiction should be experimental: no fiction writer should rest satisfied that prose fiction has settled into its final and most appropriate form such that only reiterations of the form with fresh "content" is needed.
-
I find the term problematic only in that I think all fiction should be experimental: no fiction writer should rest satisfied that prose fiction has settled into its final and most appropriate form such that only reiterations of the form with fresh "content" is needed.
-
Her concern with the Apple model is that "it now becomes Apple's relationship and Apple's data," which she described as "problematic for us."
Larry Magid: Should Apple Be the Gatekeeper for Magazine Subscription Data? Larry Magid 2011
-
Her concern with the Apple model is that "it now becomes Apple's relationship and Apple's data," which she described as "problematic for us."
Larry Magid: Should Apple Be the Gatekeeper for Magazine Subscription Data? Larry Magid 2011
-
But with Apple's service, "it now becomes Apple's relationship and Apple's data," which she described as "problematic for us."
CNET News.com 2011
-
In Genres of the Credit Economy, I developed a historical argument to show that, in periods in which what I call the problematic of representation became visible, economic, political, and epistemological uncertainty often ensued.
The Chicago Blog 2009
-
In Genres of the Credit Economy, I developed a historical argument to show that, in periods in which what I call the problematic of representation became visible, economic, political, and epistemological uncertainty often ensued.
The Chicago Blog 2009
-
In Genres of the Credit Economy, I developed a historical argument to show that, in periods in which what I call the problematic of representation became visible, economic, political, and epistemological uncertainty often ensued.
The Chicago Blog 2009
licdom commented on the word problematic
Wm. Safire says this word should not be used, because of its three diferent meanings. What do you think?
problematic
December 23, 2009
yarb commented on the word problematic
That would rule out about 50% of the OED...
December 23, 2009