absurd
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /əbˈsɜːd/
  • (America) IPA: /æbˈsɝd/, /æbˈzɝd/, /əbˈsɝd/, /əbˈzɝd/
  • (Canada) IPA: /æbˈzɝd/
Adjective

absurd (comparative absurder, superlative absurdest)

  1. Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and flatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; silly. [First attested in the mid 16th century.]
    • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, V-iv
      This proffer is absurd and reasonless.
    • ca. 1710, Alexander Pope
      This phrase absurd to call a villain great
  2. (obsolete) Inharmonious; dissonant. [Attested only in the early 17th century.]
  3. Having no rational or orderly relationship to people's lives; meaningless; lacking order or value.
    • Adults have condemned them to live in what must seem like an absurd universe. - Joseph Featherstone
  4. Dealing with absurdism.
Synonyms Translations Noun

absurd (plural absurds)

  1. (obsolete) An absurdity. [Attested from the early 17th century until the mid 17th century.]
  2. (philosophy, often preceded by the) The opposition between the human search for meaning in life and the inability to find any; the state or condition in which man exists in an irrational universe and his life has no meaning outside of his existence. [First attested in English in the early 20th century and first used in the mid-19th century in Danish by Søren Kierkegaard]
Translations Translations


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