What is a word for a big, insurmountable problem? [closed]
I'm trying to describe unemployment in the first sentence of an economics essay about South Africa. The sentence I'm thinking of is, "Unemployment is a ... problem in South Africa,... "
I'm trying to think of a word to put in the first ellipsis, and it should have the connotation of the following words: widespread, malignant, intractable, pernicious, enduring, problematic, big, serious,... you get the idea. Can you think of the word I'm trying to find?
The sentence can be modified from the one I suggested; my aim is to have a powerful opening sentence.
Solution 1:
There's "pervasive"
(especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect) spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people.
Synonyms: prevalent, pervading, permeating, extensive, ubiquitous, omnipresent, universal, rife, widespread, general
Or "perennial", to focus on the permanent nature.
You could go with some anthropomorphism, and say "Unemployment has been an implacable foe of South Africa".
Solution 2:
English is above all a verbalizing language (as opposed to, say, French, which is a nominalizing language). So, use an active verb aka action verb. In other words, we have strong verbs and they have strong nouns. This is a generalization that happens to be true. My opinion is: forget the verb to be and adjectives. Go for a good verb. These are some I thought of. I am sure others can come up with a plethora of other ones.
- Unemployment gnaws away at South Africa.
- Unemployment plagues South Africa.
- Unemployment undermines South African society.
- Unemployment burdens South Africa.
- Unemployment throttles South Africa.
Here's a sample:
Read a good weather forecast and you’ll find the weather patterns described with such active verbs as “hammered,” “trounced,” “sliced,” and “eased.” Read a good sportscast and you’ll find gleeful discussions of how a losing team was “throttled,” “bashed,” “whipped,” or “humiliated.”
active verbs