knotty situation
- noun
- /ˈnɑti sɪˈtʃueɪʃən/
- This is a very knotty situation!
Examples
-
She found herself in a knotty situation when the evidence contradicted her statement.
-
Resolving the budget shortfall became a knotty situation for the committee.
-
The new regulations put us in a knotty situation we hadn't foreseen.
-
The team is facing a knotty situation with the project deadline.
-
The team faced a knotty situation when they discovered the project's budget had been drastically cut.
-
She found herself in a knotty situation after missing the deadline for submitting her report.
-
Resolving the conflict between the two departments created a knotty situation for the management team.
Synonyms
∞
1.2
A situation that causes trouble and needs a solution
99
4.1
Something that makes a plan or situation harder to deal with
81
5.8
A difficult or embarrassing situation that is hard to escape
68
6.5
A difficult situation that is hard to get out of
45
8.5
A confusing problem or question that is hard to solve
25
4.6
An unexpected problem that delays a plan
25
8.2
A situation when you do not know what to do
25
7.9
A difficult situation that is hard to escape or solve
11
4.9
A problem with many connected parts that is hard to solve
5
8.1
A difficult situation that is hard to escape
4
3.7
A difficult situation that is hard to deal with
3
7.7
A confused, complicated situation that is hard to understand
1
9.9
A very difficult problem with no easy solution
1
5.5
A difficult, unpleasant situation that is hard to fix
A difficult problem that is hard to solve
A difficult problem that needs careful handling
A very difficult task that needs a lot of effort
A difficult task that needs a lot of effort
Antonyms
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a complex and difficult problem' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'knotty' (difficult, tangled/complex) with 'situation' (circumstances). This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition following regular productive patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the phrase's meaning.
Etymology
Knotty situation comes from the image of a rope full of knots that is twisted and hard to untie. So, a knotty situation means a problem that is tangled and 'hard to solve'.