Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Preposterous |
PreposterousAdjective1. Completely devoid of wisdom or good sense; "the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework"; "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer"; "a contribution so small as to be laughable"; "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion"; "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history"; "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "preposterous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Etymology: Preposterous \Pre*pos"ter*ous\, a.[Latin praeposterus; prae before posterus coming after, latter. See Posterior.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Preposterous means "the cart before the horse." (Latin, præ posterus, the first last and the last first.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: PreposterousSynonyms: absurd (adj), derisory (adj), laughable (adj), ludicrous (adj), nonsensical (adj), ridiculous (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Absurdity | Adjective: absurd, nonsensical, preposterous, egregious, senseless, inconsistent, ridiculous, extravagant, quibbling; self-annulling, self-contradictory; macaronic, punning. |
Exaggeration | Adjective: exaggerated; Verb: overwrought; bombastic; (grandiloquent); hyperbolical, on stilts; fabulous, extravagant, preposterous, egregious, outre, highflying. |
Greatness | Vast, immense, enormous, extreme; inordinate, excessive, extravagant, exorbitant, outrageous, preposterous, unconscionable, swinging, monstrous, overgrown; towering, stupendous, prodigious, astonishing, incredible; marvelous. |
Ridiculousness | Extravagant, outre, monstrous, preposterous, bombastic, inflated, stilted, burlesque, mock heroic. |
Undueness | Improper; unmeet, unfit, unbefitting, unseemly; unbecoming, misbecoming; seemless; contra bonos mores; not the thing, out of the question, not to be thought of; preposterous, pretentious, would-be. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Preposterous |
| English words defined with "preposterous": absurd ♦ Baron Munchausen ♦ derisory ♦ Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchhausen ♦ Laputan, laughable, ludicrous ♦ Munchausen, Munchhausen ♦ nonsensical ♦ ridiculous. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "preposterous": Cool Card. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That's preposterous, everyone knows our mutants have flippers -- oops, I've said too much (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Why, Your Honor, this is preposterous. (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; writing credit: Clarence Budington Kell; Robert Riskin) Why, Mr. Sullivan, whatever put such a preposterous idea into my head (Hello, Dolly!; writing credit: Ernest Lehman; Michael Stewart) This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; writing credit: Peter George; Stanley Kubrick) This is preposterous. This is highly skilled work (The Strange World of Planet X; writing credit: René Ray; Paul Ryder) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | But for any one who has a soul for Art, such a view is preposterous. |
A Christmas Carol | Dickens, Charles | Twelve! He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most preposterous clock |
King Richard III | Shakespeare, William | O, preposterous And frantic outrage, end thy damned spleen, Or let me die, to look on death no more |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Preposterous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 95.89% of the time. "Preposterous" is used about 146 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 95.89% | 140 | 26,789 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.11% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Total | 100.00% | 146 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "preposterous": preposterous claim. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
preposterous | 17 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "preposterous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | qesharak (absurd, buffo, comic, comical, derisive, farcical, foolish, funny, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous, risible), i pavend (Amiss, improper, inappropriate, indiscreet, inept, inopportune, irrelevant, off-key, unbecoming, uncalled for, unfortunate, unjust, unplaced), i paarsyeshëm (arbitrary, daft, desperate, devil may care, gratuitous, headstrong, irrational, unconscionable, unreasonable, wanton), absurd (absurd, absurdly, farcical, ludicrous, nonsensical, object). (various references) | |
Arabic | مناف للعقل (absurd), مثير للضحك (laughable), غير معقول (out of the question, paradoxical, pointless, unbelievable, unconscionable, unimaginable, unreasonable), أخرق (awkward, bungling, clumsy, elephantine, gauche, gawky, impolitic, left handed, lubberly, lump, mad, maladroit, meaningless, nincompoop, oafish, ponderous, senseless, shy, uncouth, ungainly, unhappy, wooden). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | нелеп (absurd, farcical, fatuous, inane, incongruous, inept, ludicrous, nonsensical, ridiculous, screwy), абсурден (absurd, farcical, hot, ludicrous, monstrous, ridiculous), безсмислен (absurd, aimless, futile, inane, insensate, inutile, meaningless, mindless, needless, nonsense, nonsensical, pointless, purposeless, senseless, sorry, stupid, tomfool, unmeaning, vacuous, vain). (various references) | |
Chinese | 十分'谬. (various references) | |
Czech | pošetilý (airy fairy, cock eyed, crackpot, fatuous, fond, foolish, gowk, naïve, silly, unreasonable), nesmyslný (absurd, mindful, nonsensical, pointless, senseless, unreasonable), absurdní (absurd, farcical, laughable, senseless, tomfool). (various references) | |
Farsi | مهمل (Nonsense, Trash, Trashy, Waggish), مضحک (Absurd, Burlesque, Comic, Droll, Grotesque, Hilarious, Laughable, Ludicrous, Ridiculous), نامعقول (Absurd, Irrational, Unreasonable, Untimely), غیرطبیعی (Sophisticated, Subnormal, Uncanny, Unnatural). (various references) | |
Finnish | nurinkurinen (all wrong, perverted). (various references) | |
French | ridicule, grotesque, absurde. (various references) | |
German | lächerlich (absurd, comical, farcical, foolish, funny, idiotically, laughable, laughably, ludicrous, ludicrously, petty, piddling, ridiculous, ridiculously, risible, trivial). (various references) | |
Greek | έξω φρενών (aboil, amok, amuck, berserk), πρωθύστεροσ, παράλογοσ (absonant, absurd, illogical, irrational, reasonless, senseless, unconscionable, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מ'וחך (absurd, farcical, grotesque, ludicrous, mock, ridiculous, stupid), אוילי (asinine, dense, fatuous, foolish, silly, sottish, stupid). (various references) | |
Hungarian | abszurd (absurd, cockeyed, fantastic, farcical, nonsensical). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mustahil (impossible, improbable, inept). (various references) | |
Italian | ridicolo (absurd, antic, comic, comical, laughable, ludicrous, paltry, ridicule, ridiculous, ridiculousness, risible, silly). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | "方もない (absurd, extraordinary, outrageous), '"無稽 (absurdity, nonsense). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | """どう " (absurd, inexcusable, outrageous), "うとうむけい (absurdity, nonsense), とほうもない (absurd, extraordinary, outrageous), と" (absolutely not, awful, serious, terrible), とてつもない (absurd, extravagant, unbelievable, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Korean | 터무니없은. (various references) | |
Manx | meeresoonagh (illogical, incoherent, senseless). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eposterouspray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | prepóstero, ridículo (apish, awful, comic, comical, derisive, derisory, extravagant, farcical, foolish, irony, laughable, ludicrous, quizzical, ragtime, ridicule, ridiculous, risible, satire), irracional (beyond reason, irrational, out of reason, surd, unreasonable, unthinking), ilógico (irrational), disparatado (absurd, blundering, crack-brained, crazy, foolish, hard-hearted, inept, insensate, irrational, kill-time, nonsensical, screwy, senseless), contrário razão, absurdo (absurd, absurdity, bloodcurdling, foolish, ill-placed, impertinent, incongruous, inept, irrational, ludicrous, monstrous, nonsense, nonsensical, ragtime, ridiculous, rubbish, unreason). (various references) | |
Romanian | ridicol (clownish, derisive, farcical, foolish, grotesque, humorous, laughable, laughably, ludicrous, ridicule, ridiculous, ridiculously, risible), ilogic (absurd, illogical), absurd (absurd, absurdity, absurdly, Dotty, fabulous, foolish, impossible, inept, irrational, ludicrous, mad, mindless, nonsensical, piffling, recondite, ridiculous, silly, stupid, temerarious, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Russian | несообразный (incompatible), нелепый (absurd, grotesque, ludicrous, nonsensical, ragtime, ridicule, ridiculous, ungodly). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | besmislen (absurd, nonsensical, pointless, unmeaning), apsurdan (absurd). (various references) | |
Spanish | ridiculo (ridiculous), absurdo (absurd, absurdity, absurdness, absurdum, blah, blether, farce, farcical, incongruous, irrational, nonsensical, ridiculous, screwy, silly, wacky). (various references) | |
Swedish | orimlig (absurd, exorbitant, extortionate, extravagant, fantastic, fantastical, incongruous, irrational, ludicrous, senseless, unconscionable, unreasonable), bakvänd (absurd, awkward, perverted, the wrong way round). (various references) | |
Turkish | mantıksız (absurd, illegitimate, illogical, implausible, impractical, inadvisable, inconsequent, inconsequential, injudicious, insensate, irrational, opaque, senseless, unconscientious, unconscionable, unreasonable, unreasoning, wacky), akılsız (buggy, bughouse, emptyheaded, fatuous, feather brain, feather-brained, fool, foolish, goofy, gormless, ill-advised, inexpedient, irrational, mindless, unintelligent, unreasoning, unwise, vacant, witless), akıl almaz (imagination boggles at the thought, incomprehensible, inconceivable, incredible, numinous, unbelievable, unreasonable, unreasoning). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | безглуздий (absurd, addle-brained, addle-pated, barmy, blind, brainless, brute, crack-brained, crazy, foolish, idiotic, idiotical, impertinent, insane, ludicrous, meaningless, nail biting, nonsensical, pointless, senseless, wanton, wet), перевернутий (inverse). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | phi lý (amphigouric, illogical, reasonless), vô nghĩa lý ngớ ngẩn, trái với lẽ thường, trái thói, lố bịch (absurd, comical, grotesque, ludicrous, priceless, ridiculous). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "preposterous": preposterously, preposterousness, preposterousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Preposterous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: perposterous, preposerous, preposterious, prepostirous, prepostorous, prepostreous, prepostrous, prepost'rous, preposturous, proposterous, Reposteria. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "preposterous" (pronounced prupÄ"sterus or prupÄ"strus) |
| 5 | -s t er u s | boisterous. |
| 4 | -t er u s | adulterous, traitorous, uterus. |
| 3 | -er u s | adventurous, amorous, avarice, barbarous, cancerous, cantankerous, carboniferous, carnivorous, coniferous, dangerous, decorous, fossiliferous, generous, glamorous, herbivorous, heterosporous, homosporous, humerus, humorous, insectivorous, lecherous, murderous, numerous, odorous, omnivorous, onerous, overgenerous, oviparous, ovoviviparous, phosphorous, phosphorus, ponderous, precancerous, prosperous, rancorous, rapturous, rhinoceros, rigorous, slanderous, sonorous, tetramerous, thunderous, timorous, treacherous, unglamorous, vigorous, viviparous, vociferous. |
| 5 | -s t r u s | ambidextrous, dextrous, disastrous, estrous, estrus, headmistress, lustrous, mistress, monstrous, seamstress. |
| 4 | -t r u s | actress, buttress, citrus, fortress, huntress, idolatrous, mattress, nitrous, temptress, waitress. |
| 3 | -r u s | ambassadress, arris, Brontosaurus, chorus, Cirrus, congress, Cypress, Cyprus, cytomegalovirus, desirous, embarrass, ferrous, fibrous, hantavirus, heiress, hubris, hydrous, Iris, ludicrous, Madras, maquiladoras, Morris, nonferrous, ogress, polyandrous, porous, puris, retrovirus, sorus, stegosaurus, terrace, thesaurus, Tyrannosaurus, virus, walrus, wondrous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-o-o-p-p-r-r-s-s-t-u" | |
-2 letters: prosperous, superports, superstore, supporters. | |
-3 letters: oppressor, posturers, proestrus, properest, proposers, proptoses, proteoses, proteuses, reopposes, resprouts, retrousse, stroppers, superport, superpose, superpros, supporter, uprooters. | |
-4 letters: espouser, oestrous, opposers, outpress, perusers, portress, posturer, postures, presorts, pressure, presters, proposer, proposes, prospers, proteose, purports, purposes, reoppose, reposers, repousse, reroutes, resprout, restores, roosters, rousters, sporters, spouters, steppers, stoopers, stoppers. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-o-o-p-p-r-r-s-s-t-u" | |
+2 letters: preposterously. | |
+4 letters: preposterousness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
