The label moral dilemma is commonly applied to any difficult moral problem. Several introductory anthologies in ethics have been titled Moral Dilemmas, suggesting that all of the issues discussed therein are moral dilemmas, regardless of their structure, simply because they raise hard moral questions. Many people even talk about moral dilemmas when it is not clear whether or not morality is relevant at all.

Moral philosophers, in contrast, usually have in mind something more specific. Minimally, they count a situation as a moral dilemma only if one moral reason conflicts with another (moral or nonmoral) reason. Reasons conflict in a situation if the agent is not able in that situation to comply with all of the reasons. For example, if it is in Ann's interest to lie to a potential employer, then Ann's prudential reason to lie conflicts with Ann's moral reason not to lie. Similarly...