the chicken or the egg
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A situation where it's unclear which factor is the cause and which is the effect
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Tình huống mà không rõ yếu tố nào là nguyên nhân và yếu tố nào là kết quả
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a chicken or an egg
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “the chicken or the egg” mean?
A situation where it's unclear which factor is the cause and which is the effect Literally: a chicken or an egg
Is “the chicken or the egg” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.