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absurd

adjectivenouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//əbˈsɜːd//
  • United Kingdom//əbˈzɜːd//
  • Canada//əbˈsɚd//
  • Canada//əbˈzɚd//
  • Canada//æbˈsɚd//

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.

adjective

  1. 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.

    This proffer is absurd and reasonless.

    'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great

    “Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.

    I know it sounds absurd / But please, tell me who I am

  2. 2

    obsoleteInharmonious; dissonant.

  3. 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.

  4. 4

    Dealing with absurdism.

Etymology

First attested in 1557. From Middle French absurde, from Latin absurdus (“incongruous, dissonant, out of tune”), from ab (“away from, out”) + surdus (“silent, deaf, dull-sounding”). Compare surd.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteAn absurdity.

  2. 2

    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.

Forms

plural
absurds
comparative
absurder, more absurd
superlative
absurdest, most absurd
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).