Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Absurdity |
AbsurdityNoun1. A message whose content is at variance with reason. 2. A ludicrous folly; "the crowd laughed at the absurdity of the clown's behavior". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "absurdity" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
Etymology: Absurdity \Ab*surd"i*ty\ (-[i^]*t[y^]), noun; plural Absurdities(-t[i^]z). [Latin absurditas: compare to French absurdite.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | ABSURDITY, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: AbsurditySynonyms: absurdness (n), fatuity (n), fatuousness (n), ridiculousness (n), silliness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Absurdity | Noun: absurdity, absurdness; Adjective: imbecility; alogy, nonsense, utter nonsense; paradox, inconsistency; stultiloquy, stultiloquence; nugacity. |
Ridiculousness | Verb: be ridiculous; Adjective: pass from the sublime to the ridiculous; make one laugh; play the fool, make a fool of oneself, commit an absurdity. |
Farce, comedy; burlesque; (ridicule); buffoonery; (fun); frippery; doggerel verses; absurdity; bombast; (unmeaning); anticlimax, bathos; eccentricity, monstrosity; (unconformity); laughingstock. | |
Unmeaningness | Nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae; twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity; vagueness; (unintelligibility). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Absurdity |
| English words defined with "absurdity": Absurdities, Alogy, Apagoge, Apagogical ♦ fatuity, fatuousness ♦ Indirect demonstration ♦ Logical impossibility ♦ Nonsense verses ♦ silliness. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "absurdity": Brentford ♦ Danaos ♦ exception ♦ JESTER ♦ Lemons ♦ Metalogicus, Misnomers. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | A Hunting Absurdity (1914) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Fisher, Carroll in a slap-bang absurdity, The Lobster. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Fisher and Carroll in a slap-bang absurdity, The Lobster. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Author Unknown | Who dares affirm the absurdity that man can originate for himself a priesthood which God shall honor and respect. |
Denis Diderot | To prove the Gospels by a miracle is to prove an absurdity by something contrary to nature. |
John Stuart Mill | That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next. |
Joseph Addison | An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person. |
Junius | When once a man is determined to believe, the very absurdity of the doctrine does but confirm him in his faith. |
Napoleon Bonaparte | In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it. |
Oliver Goldsmith | Every absurdity has a champion to defend it; for error is always talkative. |
Samuel Johnson | Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. |
Thomas Hobbes | The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | Thirdly, The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent: for the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter into society, it necessarily supposes and requires, that the people should have property, without which they must be supposed to lose that, by entering into society, which was the end for which they entered into it; too gross an absurdity for any man to own. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Marbury v. Madison | 1803 | This would be to overthrow in fact what was established in theory; and would seem, at first view, an absurdity too gross to be insisted on. (reference) |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity -- the epidemic of over-production. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | Were she a woman of fortune, I would leave every harmless absurdity to take its chance, I would not quarrel with you for any liberties of manner |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | Such a being, without free will, would be an absurdity. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine, but the practice still continues, in compliance to the vulgar |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | JESTER, n. An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears. The widow-queen of Portugal Had an audacious jester Who entered the confessional Disguised, and there confessed her. "Father," she said, "thine ear bend down -- My sins are more than scarlet: I love my fool -- blaspheming clown, And common, base-born varlet." "Daughter," the mimic priest replied, "That sin, indeed, is awful: The church's pardon is denied To love that is unlawful. "But since thy stubborn heart will be For him forever pleading, Thou'dst better make him, by decree, A man of birth and breeding." She made the fool a duke, in hope With Heaven's taboo to palter; Then told a priest, who told the Pope, Who damned her from the altar! Barel Dort |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | You have to just marvel at the stun-gun absurdity of fighting to the death over what happens after you die. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Absurdity" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Absurdity" is used about 245 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 |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 245 | 19,065 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "absurdity": commit an absurdity ♦ reduce to absurdity. 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 |
constantly risking absurdity | 7 |
absurdity | 6 |
absurdity sexual | 2 |
absurdity alice in in wonderland | 2 |
absurdity city | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "absurdity"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | absurditeit (nonsense, rubbish), belaglikheid. (various references) | |
Albanian | absurditet (ineptitude, nonsense). (various references) | |
Arabic | لامعقول (absurd), سخافة (fatuousness, ineptitude, ineptness, silliness, tomfoolery, tommyrot), شىء سخيف. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | неразумна постъпка, нелепост (fatuity, fatuousness, inanity, incongruity, ineptitude, nonsense), абсурдност (absurdness, ineptitude, nonsense, unreason), абсурд (nonsense). (various references) | |
Chinese | '" (Absurdities, Farcical). (various references) | |
Czech | absurdnost (nonsense), nesmyslnost (futility, inanity, non-sense), nesmysl (balderdash, bunk, nonsense, nuts, rot, rubbish, tripe, trumpery). (various references) | |
Dutch | onding (nonsense, rubbish), absurditeit (nonsense, rubbish). (various references) | |
Esperanto | absurdeco, absurdaĵo, sensenceco. (various references) | |
Farsi | پوچی (Vanity, Vapidity), مزخرف بودن , چرندی . (various references) | |
Finnish | nurinkurisuus, mielettömyys (folly), järjettömyys (unreasonableness), hullunkurisuus (drollery, ludicrousness). (various references) | |
French | absurdité. (various references) | |
German | Absurdität (ludicrousness, preposterousness), Albernheit (fatuity, foolery, foolishness, inanity, ineptitude, ridiculousness, silliness, silly prank, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Greek | γελοιότητα (ridiculousness), παραλογισμόσ (aberration, absurdness, irrationality, mental aberration, nonsense, paralogism, preposterousness, senselessness, unreasonableness), παραλογία (paralogy), ατοπία (absurdness). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | absurditet. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ש'עון (craziness, insanity, kink, lunacy, madness, mania, quirk, whim), שטות (fiddle-faddle, foolishness, insanity, madness, nonsense, piffle, tomfoolery), חוסר "'יון, אבסור"יות, לע'ות (ludicrousness, ridiculousness). (various references) | |
Hungarian | képtelenség (bushwa, impossibility, inability, incapacitation, incongruity, ineptitude, nonsense, ridiculousness, rubbish), abszurdum. (various references) | |
Icelandic | fjarstæða (nonsense, rubbish), fásinna. (various references) | |
Indonesian | ketidakmasukalan (impossibility), kemustahilan (impossibility), kebadutan (clowning). (various references) | |
Italian | assurdo (absurd, nonsense, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous, senseless, ungodly), assurdit (absurdness), assurdita'. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | '"無稽 (nonsense, preposterous). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | お"のさた (impertinence, presumption, stupidity), しょうし (boatman, contemptible, crystallite, death by fire, eulogy, laughable, low birth rate, midnight, officers and men, paper making, pitiful, praise, ridiculous, short or concise history, stamp), ふどうり (irrationality, unreasonableness), ふじょうり (inconsistency, irrationality), "うとうむけい (nonsense, preposterous), むちゃ (absurd, excessive, nonsense, rash, unreasonable), はいり (alienated, estranged, irrationality), と"ち"か" (contradiction). (various references) | |
Korean | 부조리 (Absurdities). (various references) | |
Manx | meecheeayllid (absurdness, idiocy, imbecility, madness, silliness, simpleness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | absurdityay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | absurdo (absurd, bloodcurdling, foolish, ill-placed, impertinent, incongruous, inept, irrational, ludicrous, monstrous, nonsense, nonsensical, preposterous, ragtime, ridiculous, rubbish, unreason), absurdidade (absurdness). (various references) | |
Romanian | absurditate (blue dahlia, fallacy, foolishness, ineptitude, irrationality, nonsense, stupidity, unreason, unreasonableness), absurd (absurd, absurdly, Dotty, fabulous, foolish, impossible, inept, irrational, ludicrous, mad, mindless, nonsensical, piffling, preposterous, recondite, ridiculous, silly, stupid, temerarious, unreasonable), aberaţie (aberration, fallacy, phantasmagoria), sucealã (caprices, Folly, freaks, unreason, whims), nonsens (flapdoodle, nonsense). (various references) | |
Russian | нелепость (absurdness, foolishness). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | apsurd (howl), besmislenost (preposterousness). (various references) | |
Spanish | absurdo (absurd, absurdness, absurdum, blah, blether, farce, farcical, incongruous, irrational, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous, screwy, silly, wacky). (various references) | |
Swedish | orimlighet (absurdness, bull, exorbitance, exorbitancy, incongruity). (various references) | |
Turkish | anlamsızlık (absurdness, barrenness, fatuity, frivolity, inanity, incoherence, ineptitude, ineptness, inexpressiveness, insignificance, insignificancy, nonsensicalness, nothingness, ridiculousness, unreason, vacuity), saçmalık (applesauce, balderdash, bilge, blather, blatherskite, blether, bosh, drivel, extravagance, eyewash, farce, fatuity, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, flimflam, flubdub, footle, gab, galimatias, gassing, gibberish, guff, hog-wash, hokum, hooey, inanity, ineptitude, ineptness, insanity, irrationality, lark, malarkey, moonshine, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, punk, rot, rubbish, shenanigan, silliness, spinach, stuff, talkee-talkee, the irrational, trash, triviality, twaddle, vacuity, whimsicality, whimsicalness, wind, wishy-wash), mantıksızlık (fallacy, illogicality, inconsequence, irrationality, opacity, paralogism, the irrational, unreason). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | нісенітність (absurdness), абсурдність (absurdness), безглуздість (absurdness, foolishness, foppery, impertinence, inanity, senselessness), дурниця (absurdness, applesauce, balderdash, ballyhoo, bosh, buncombe, froth, humbug, mush, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, porridge, rigmarole, rubbish, sappiness, shucks, slum, trash, tripe). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự vô lý (impertinence, impertinency), sự ngu xuẩn (foolery), sự ngớ ngẩn điều vô lý, điều ngớ ngẩn. (various references) | |
Welsh | gwrthuni (odiousness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | deliramentum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Absurdity" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abscurity, absurdest, absurdists. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "absurdity" (pronounced ubser"dutē) |
| 4 | -d u t ē | acidity, commodity, fluidity, heredity, humidity, illiquidity, liquidity, lividity, morbidity, nudity, oddity, rapidity, rigidity, solidity, stupidity, superfluidity, timidity, turbidity, validity. |
| 3 | -u t ē | acceptability, accessibility, ability, abnormality, accountability, activity, actuality, acuity, adaptability, admissibility, adversity, advisability, affinity, affordability, aggressivity, agility, alacrity, alkalinity, ambiguity, amenity, amiability, amity, analyticity, animosity, annuity, anonymity, antiquity, anxiety, applicability, atrocity, audacity, austerity, authenticity, authority, availability, banality, barbarity, believability, bestiality, biodiversity, bisexuality, brevity, brutality, calamity, capability, capacity, captivity, causality, cavity, celebrity, centrality, charity, chastity, civility, clarity, collegiality, commonality, community, comparability, compatibility, complexity, complicity, comprehensibility, conditionality, conductivity, confidentiality, conformity, congeniality, congruity, connectivity, constitutionality, continuity, convertibility, creativity, credibility, credulity, criminality, criticality, crotchety, culpability, curiosity, cyclicality, debility, deductibility, deformity, deity, deniability, density, dependability, depravity, deputy, desirability, dexterity, dignity, dimensionality, disability, discontinuity, irresponsibility, irritability, laity, laxity, legality, disparity, dissimilarity, disunity, diversity, divinity, docility, domesticity, duality, ductility, duplicity, durability, eccentricity, elasticity, electability, electricity, eligibility, enforceability, enmity, enormity, entity, equality, equanimity, equity, eternity, ethnicity, eventuality, exclusivity, expressivity, extraterritoriality, extremity, facility, fallibility, falsity, familiarity, fatality, feasibility, Felicity, femininity, ferocity, fertility, festivity, fidelity, finality, flammability, flexibility, formality, fragility, fraternity, frivolity, frugality, functionality, futility, generality, generosity, geniality, gentility, gratuity, gravity, gullibility, heterogeneity, heterosexuality, hilarity, homogeneity, homosexuality, hospitality, hostility, humanity, humility, hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, identity, illegality, immaturity, immobility, immorality, immortality, immunity, impartiality, impersonality, impossibility, impropriety, impunity, impurity, inability, inaccessibility, inactivity, incapacity, incivility, incompatibility, incongruity, incredulity, indemnity, indestructibility, indignity, individuality, inequality, inequity, inevitability, infallibility, inferiority, infertility, infidelity, infinity, infirmity, inflexibility, informality, ingenuity, inhumanity, insanity, insecurity, insensitivity, instability, instrumentality, insularity, integrity, intensity, invincibility, invisibility, invulnerability, irrationality, irregularity, legibility, lethality, levity, liability, liberality, locality, longevity, majority, malleability, maneuverability, marketability, masculinity, materiality, maternity, maturity, mediocrity, mendacity, mentality, minority, miscibility, mobility, modality, modernity, monstrosity, morality, mortality, motility, multiplicity, municipality, musicality, mutuality, nationality, nativity, necessity, negativity, neutrality, nobility, Nonconformity, nonentity, nonutility, normality, notoriety, obesity, objectivity, obscenity, obscurity, opacity, opportunity, originality, overcapacity, oversensitivity, palatability, parity, partiality, particularity, passivity, paternity, paucity, peculiarity, permeability, perpetuity, perplexity, personality, perversity, piety, plausibility, plurality, polarity, polity, pomposity, popularity, portability, possibility, posterity, practicality, predictability, principality, priority, probability, probity, proclivity, productivity, profanity, profitability, progressivity, promiscuity, propensity, proportionality, propriety, prosperity, proximity, publicity, punctuality, purity, quality, quantity, radioactivity, rarity, rationality, reactivity, readability, reality, receptivity, reciprocity, reflexivity, regularity, relativity, reliability, religiosity, respectability, responsibility, retroactivity, rickety, salinity, sanctity, sanity, scarcity, seasonality, security, selectivity, senility, seniority, sensibility, sensitivity, sensuality, sentimentality, serendipity, serenity, severity, sexuality, similarity, simplicity, sincerity, sobriety, society, solemnity, solidarity, sorority, speciality, specificity, spirituality, spontaneity, stability, sterility, subjectivity, suitability, superconductivity, superiority, supermajority, surety, survivability, susceptibility, sustainability, technicality, temerity, tenacity, theatricality, tonality, totality, toxicity, tranquility, transferability, Trinity, triviality, ubiquity, unanimity, unavailability, unfamiliarity, uniformity, unity, universality, university, unpopularity, unpredictability, unreality, unreliability, uppity, utility, vanity, variability, variety, varsity, velocity, velvety, venality, veracity, Verity, versatility, viability, vicinity, virginity, virility, virtuosity, viscosity, visibility, vitality, volatility, voracity, vulgarity, vulnerability. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-d-i-r-s-t-u-y" | |
-2 letters: bustard, disturb, dysuria, satyrid, subarid. | |
-3 letters: absurd, airbus, audits, aurist, braids, bruits, daubry, disbar, radius, rubati, sturdy, sudary, triads, turbid, urbias, yairds. | |
-4 letters: abris, abuts, adits, adust, airts, artsy, astir, audit, auris, baits, bards, bauds, birds, bitsy, brads, braid, brats, brays, brits, bruit, buras, burds, bursa, burst, busty, dairy, daisy, darbs, darts, daubs. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-d-i-r-s-t-u-y" | |
+3 letters: disreputably, distributary, subsidiarity. | |
+4 letters: subordinately. | |
+5 letters: ambidextrously, undesirability. | |
| 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. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
