[formed after DILEMMA: see TRI-.] A situation, or (in Logic) a syllogism, of the nature of a DILEMMA, but involving three alternatives instead of two.
1672. P. Henry, Diaries & Lett., 16 Feb. (1882), 250. Wee are put hereby to a Trilemma either to turn flat Independents, or to strike in with ye conformists, or to sit down in former silence.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 375. Joseph … prudently answers the … trilemma, the … three-horned argument.
1725. Watts, Logic, III. ii. § 6. This sort of argument may be … composed of three … members, and may be called a Trilemma.
1854. Courier-Journal (KY), 3 Feb., 2/2. Upon which horn of the trilemma will you impale yourself?
1858. Sears, Athan., I. xix. 172–3. We stand in a trilemma, and we must adopt one of three sets of conclusions, and exclude and reject the other two.
1887. Fowler, Deductive Logic, v. (ed. 9), 120. We may form a Trilemma, Tetralemma, &c., by increasing the number of antecedents or consequents or both.
1910. Dayton Herald, 5 July, 4/1. It is political suicide. The only beauty about it is that the suicide proposition is a trilemma.
