CONUNDRUM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does conundrum mean? 

• CONUNDRUM (noun)
  The noun CONUNDRUM has 1 sense:

1. a difficult problem

  Familiarity information: CONUNDRUM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONUNDRUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A difficult problem

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

brain-teaser; conundrum; enigma; riddle

Hypernyms ("conundrum" is a kind of...):

problem (a question raised for consideration or solution)

 Context examples 

This little conundrum came by the first post, and he was to follow by the next train.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I believe the theme of this incomprehensible conundrum was the moon.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“No, no,” said Emma, “it will not reckon low. A conundrum of Mr. Weston's shall clear him and his next neighbour. Come, sir, pray let me hear it.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The conundrum is that the disk shouldn't be there, based on current astronomical theories.

(Hubble Uncovers Black Hole Disk that Shouldn't Exist, NASA)

And to add confusion to confusion, there was the servant, an unceasing menace, that appeared noiselessly at his shoulder, a dire Sphinx that propounded puzzles and conundrums demanding instantaneous solution.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This may be a solution to a theoretical conundrum called the final parsec problem, in which two supermassive black holes can approach to within a few light-years of each other but would need some extra pull inwards to merge because of the excess energy they carry in their orbits.

(Three Black Holes on Collision Course, NASA)

“Agreed, agreed. I will do my best. I am making a conundrum. How will a conundrum reckon?”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He was invited to contribute any really good enigmas, charades, or conundrums that he might recollect; and she had the pleasure of seeing him most intently at work with his recollections; and at the same time, as she could perceive, most earnestly careful that nothing ungallant, nothing that did not breathe a compliment to the sex should pass his lips.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)