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🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

道德困境

Pronunciation / Transliteration: dàodé kùnjìng

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Moral quandary/ˈmɔːr.əl ˈkwɒn.də.ri/
nounCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #14500 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"这个复杂的案件引发了严重的道德困境。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A difficult situation in which an individual is faced with conflicting ethical choices or obligations, making a clear right decision hard to determine.

    "Deciding whether to report a colleague's minor infraction at the expense of their livelihood presented a profound moral quandary."
  2. 2

    A state of perplexity or uncertainty over what constitutes the right course of action in an ethical context.

    "The whistleblower experienced a deep moral quandary before releasing the confidential documents."
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Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The term combines 'moral', derived from Latin 'moralis' (pertaining to character or custom), and 'quandary', a 16th-century English word of uncertain origin possibly derived from the Anglo-French phrase 'qu'en dirai-je?' meaning 'what shall I say of it?'. Together, the compound evolved to describe a perplexing ethical dilemma where a person is torn between conflicting principles.

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