problem

1. 1.

   a state of difficulty that needs to be resolved

   “she and her husband are having problems”

   “it is always a job to contact him”

   “urban problems such as traffic congestion and smog”

   Synonymsjob

   Broaderdifficulty

   Narrowerrace problembalance-of-payments problem
2. 2.

   a question raised for consideration or solution

   “our homework consisted of ten problems to solve”

   Broaderquestion

   Narrowerpuzzlecasehomework problemriddleposerGordian knotkoanpons asinorumrebus
3. 3.

   a source of difficulty

   “one trouble after another delayed the job”

   “what's the problem?”

   Synonymstrouble

   Broaderdifficulty

   Narrowerpressure pointcan of wormsdeep watergrowing painshydramatter

Other forms of problem

plural

problems·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about problem

What does problem mean?

problem means "a state of difficulty that needs to be resolved". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in problem?

problem has 2 syllables: pro-blem. The stress falls on "pro". In IPA it is /ˈpɹɑbləm/.

What is another word for problem?

Close synonyms include job, trouble. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is problem a common word?

problem is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.