Dic: predicament and its synonyms

predicament: N-COUNT : usu with supp | If you are in a predicament, you are in an unpleasant situation that is difficult to get out of.

.......... Cobuild

Synonyms: predicament, plight(1), quandary, jam(1), fix, pickle

These nouns refer to a situation from which it is difficult to free oneself.

• A predicament is a problematic situation about which one does not know what to do:
  .. "Werner finds himself suddenly in a most awkward predicament" (Thomas Carlyle). 
• A plight is a bad or unfortunate situation:
  ... The report examined the plight of homeless people. 
• A quandary is a state of perplexity, especially about what course of action to take:
  .... "Having captured our men, we were in a quandary how to keep them" (Theodore Roosevelt). 
• Jam and fix are less formal terms that refer to predicaments from which it is difficult to escape:
  .... kids who were in a jam with the authorities;
  .... "If we get left on this wreck we are in a fix" (Mark Twain). 
• An informal term, a pickle is a disagreeable, embarrassing, or troublesome predicament:
  .... "I could see no way out of the pickle I was in" (Robert Louis Stevenson).

..... The American Heritage