Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

three-pipe problem

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.21 in modern English

Syllables
three--pipe prob-lem
IPA
29
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A particularly complex or challenging problem or puzzle.

Etymology

From the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, in which the detective would smoke one or more pipes while pondering the solution to a mystery.

Inflected Forms

three-pipe problems (plural)

Phrases

one-banana problem

Frequently Paired Words

one-banana problem

Questions

What does three-pipe problem mean?
A particularly complex or challenging problem or puzzle.
Where does three-pipe problem come from?
From the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, in which the detective would smoke one or more pipes while pondering the solution to a mystery.

How to pronounce three-pipe problem

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “three-pipe problem”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “three-pipe problem”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “three-pipe problem” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.