PROBLEMATICAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does problematical mean? 

• PROBLEMATICAL (adjective)
  The adjective PROBLEMATICAL has 2 senses:

1. open to doubt or debate

2. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe

  Familiarity information: PROBLEMATICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROBLEMATICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Open to doubt or debate

Synonyms:

debatable; problematic; problematical

Context example:

If you ever get married, which seems to be extremely problematic

Similar:

questionable (subject to question)

Derivation:

problem (a source of difficulty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe

Synonyms:

baffling; elusive; knotty; problematic; problematical; tough

Context example:

a problematic situation at home

Similar:

difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

Derivation:

problem (a state of difficulty that needs to be resolved)

 Context examples 

If he could think himself of so much use, one gleam of day might, by possibility, penetrate into the cheerless dungeon of his remaining existence—though his longevity is, at present (to say the least of it), extremely problematical.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Neither is reason among them a point problematical, as with us, where men can argue with plausibility on both sides of the question, but strikes you with immediate conviction; as it must needs do, where it is not mingled, obscured, or discoloured, by passion and interest.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)