See Catch-22 on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for Catch-22 meaning in All languages combined (4.8kB)
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"etymology_text": "Coined by American author Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.",
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{
"text": "For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, page 194",
"text": "Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.",
"type": "quotation"
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],
"glosses": [
"A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions."
],
"id": "en-Catch-22-en-noun-fhvrTIwJ",
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"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "CATCH 22 syndrome"
},
{
"word": "deadlock"
},
{
"word": "dilemma"
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],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "no-win situation"
},
{
"word": "dilemma"
},
{
"word": "catch-22"
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Hlava 22"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Hlava XXII"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "dilemo"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Zwickmühle"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Dilemma"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Teufelskreis"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "Sackgasse"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "ausweglose Situation"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "a 22-es csapdája"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "csapdahelyzet"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "kilátástalan/megoldhatatlan helyzet"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Paragraf 22"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "paradoks literacki"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "błędne koło"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "beco sem saída"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
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"word": "moment 22"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "kısırdöngü"
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"text": "For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, page 194",
"text": "Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.",
"type": "quotation"
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],
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],
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"(idiomatic) A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions."
],
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{
"word": "no-win situation"
},
{
"word": "dilemma"
}
],
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{
"word": "catch-22"
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Hlava 22"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Hlava XXII"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "dilemo"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Zwickmühle"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "Dilemma"
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{
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"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
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"word": "Teufelskreis"
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{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Sackgasse"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "ausweglose Situation"
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{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "a 22-es csapdája"
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{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
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"word": "csapdahelyzet"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "kilátástalan/megoldhatatlan helyzet"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "Paragraf 22"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "paradoks literacki"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "błędne koło"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "beco sem saída"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "moment 22"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "difficult situation",
"word": "kısırdöngü"
}
],
"word": "Catch-22"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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