problematic

comparative more problematic · superlative most problematic

1. Posing a problem; having or suffering from problem(s):
   1. Difficult to overcome, solve, or decide.

      However, estimating what consumers will pay in the future is problematic.

      2010, The Future of Energy Use

      2 more examples

      And the most problematic thing of all is that it is impossible for me even to know and tell you their names, unless one of them happens to be a playwright.

      1993, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant, “Justice and Duty (i): Socrates Speaks at his Trial: the Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), revised edition, London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 39

      The station is blessed with a cafe and staff accommodation, as it's an important crew changeover point, although this can be problematic when services are late.

      2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79

   2. Not settled, uncertain, of uncertain outcome; debatable, questionable, open to doubt.

      a problematic analysis

      2 more examples

      The strangeness of hiring undocumented Mexican women as domestics, many of whom were no older than fifteen, seemed strange to me. It was this strangeness that raised the topic of domestic service as a question and made problematic what had previously been taken for granted.

      1992, Mary Romero, “Intersection of Biography and History: My Intellectual Journey”, in Maid in the U.S.A., Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 1

      it portends a problematic future for the movement

      Synonyms: doubtful, dubious, questionable, controversial, uncertain

   3. human sciencesContributing (especially if subtly) to discrimination (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or ageism).
2. datedhuman sciencesOnly affirming the possibility that a predicate be actualised.

plural problematics

1. A problem or difficulty in a particular field of study.

   The seemingly intractable problematic of essentialism versus antiessentialism and primordialism versus circumstantialism endemic to identity analysis today.

   2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 141

   1 more example

   However, for those who come to India’s railway history for the first time, perhaps via knowledge of other countries’ railway histories with which they want to make India-based comparisons or in pursuit of a particular problematic—for example the role of railways in economic development—this chapter may prove useful.

   2012 August 3, John Hurd, Ian J. Kerr, India’s Railway History: A Research Handbook (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section Two: South Asia; 27), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 1