Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ludicrous |
LudicrousAdjective1. Broadly or extravagantly humorous; resembling farce; "the wild farcical exuberance of a clown"; "ludicrous green hair". 2. 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 "ludicrous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Etymology: Ludicrous \Lu"di*crous\, adjective. [Latin expression ludicrus, or ludicer, from ludus play, sport, from ludere to play.]. (references) |
Synonyms: LudicrousSynonyms: absurd (adj), derisory (adj), farcical (adj), laughable (adj), nonsensical (adj), preposterous (adj), ridiculous (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Adjective: amusing, entertaining, diverting; Verb: recreational, recreative, lusory; pleasant; (pleasing); laughable; (ludicrous); witty; fun, festive, festal; jovial, jolly, jocund, roguish, rompish; playful, playful as a kitten; sportive, ludibrious. |
Ridiculousness | Adjective: ridiculous, ludicrous; comical; droll, funny, laughable, pour rire, grotesque, farcical, odd; whimsical, whimsical as a dancing bear; fanciful, fantastic, queer, rum, quizzical, quaint, bizarre; screaming; eccentric; (unconformable); strange, outlandish, out of the way, baroque, weird; awkward; (ugly). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ludicrous |
| English words defined with "ludicrous": absurd, absurdity, antic, anticlimactic, anticlimactical ♦ bull ♦ caper, Cross-reading ♦ derisory ♦ fatuity, fatuousness ♦ Grotesgue, grotesqueness, grotesquerie, grotesquery ♦ Heroicomical ♦ joke ♦ laughable ♦ nonsensical ♦ prank, preposterous, put-on ♦ ridiculous ♦ silliness ♦ The five wits, tragicomic, tragicomical, trick ♦ zany. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ludicrous": Asparagus ♦ bozotic ♦ hacker humor, hacker humour, Highgate, HOCUS POCUS ♦ JESTER, Justing of Watson and Barbour ♦ LAUGH ♦ MacTab ♦ Pagan Works of Art ♦ RIDING SKIMMINGTON, ROUGH MUSIC ♦ SCALD MISERABLES, Sparrowgrass ♦ Zany. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "ludicrous": interlude. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Ludicrous speed (Spaceballs; writing credit: Mel Brooks and Ronny Graham.) And frankly, it's ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not interlock (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Goofy; guffaw; daffy; dippy; fool; foolish; idiotic; inane; irrational; nonsensical; jokey; joshing; kooky; laughable; loony; ludicrous; nutty; senseless; silly; stupid; tomfool; wacky;; absurd; batty; boffo; comic; comical; facetious; farcical; foolheade. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | In this way arose Feudal Socialism: half lamentation, half lampoon; half echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart's core; but always ludicrous in its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of modern history. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | That would be ludicrous to Montparnasse |
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. | ||
| "Ludicrous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.41% of the time. "Ludicrous" is used about 446 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) | 96.41% | 430 | 13,340 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.59% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Total | 100.00% | 446 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "ludicrous": farcical ludicrous ridiculous ♦ ludicrous character. 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 |
ludicrous | 76 |
ludicrous lyrics | 6 |
ludicrous rapper | 3 |
ludicrous speed | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ludicrous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | qesharak (absurd, buffo, comic, comical, derisive, farcical, foolish, funny, laughable, preposterous, ridiculous, risible), absurd (absurd, absurdly, farcical, nonsensical, object, preposterous). (various references) | |
Arabic | مضحك (buffoon, burlesque, clown, comedian, comic, comical, comics, droll, farcical, foolish, funny, harlequin, humorous, jester, laughable, laughing, merry andrew, ridiculous, risible, silly, wag), غريب (absurd, alien, anomalous, antic, bizarre, eerie, eery, exotic, extraneous, fanciful, foreign, freakish, funny, grotesque, intruder, new, odd, outlandish, outsider, peculiar, potty, quaint, queer, rum, senseless, singular, strange, stranger, tall, unaccustomed, uncanny, uncouth, unearthly, unfamiliar, unnatural, whimsical), جدير بأن يضحك. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | смешен (amusing, comic, comical, derisive, derisory, farcical, foolish, funny, laughable, laughing, quizzical, ridiculous, risible, screwy), нелеп (absurd, farcical, fatuous, inane, incongruous, inept, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous, screwy), абсурден (absurd, farcical, hot, monstrous, preposterous, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Chinese | 可笑 (Comic, Comical, laughable, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Czech | smìšný (antic, derisory, facetious, funny, humorous, laughable, piffling, quizzical, ridiculous, risible). (various references) | |
Dutch | belachelijk (ridiculous). (various references) | |
Farsi | مزخرف (Absurd, Baloney, Nonsense, Nonsensical, Slag, Tawdry, Trashy), مضحک (Absurd, Burlesque, Comic, Droll, Grotesque, Hilarious, Laughable, Preposterous, Ridiculous), چرند (Baloney, Bilk, Corny, Crap, Hokum, Inane, Jive, Nonsensical, Rigmarole, Shenanigan, Silly, Stuff, Trashy, Unmeaning, Windy), خنده اور (Droll, Howler, Humorous, Risible). (various references) | |
Finnish | naurettava (ridiculous), hullunkurinen (absurd, bizarre, comical, droll, extremely funny), hassunkurinen (comical, droll, funny). (various references) | |
French | risible, ridicule, grotesque (ludicrousness), étrange. (various references) | |
German | lächerlich (absurd, comical, farcical, foolish, funny, idiotically, laughable, laughably, ludicrously, petty, piddling, preposterous, ridiculous, ridiculously, risible, trivial), albern (absurd, addled, clownish, fatuous, fatuously, foolish, footling, giggly, inane, inanely, ridiculous, silly, simper, simpering, simperingly, stupid). (various references) | |
Greek | γελοίοσ (clownish, derisive, farcical, laughable, ridiculous, risible), γελοίος (ridiculous), περίγελος (laughing stock, ridiculous, stooge), αστείοσ (comical, droll, funny, humorous, jesting, jocose, jocular, quizzical, tickler), αξιογέλαστοσ (ridiculous). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מ'וחך (absurd, farcical, grotesque, mock, preposterous, ridiculous, stupid), מצחיק (amusing, comic, comical, droll, funny, humorous, laughable, ridiculous), לע' (laughable, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tréfás (comic, comical, droll, facetious, funny, have a dig at sy, humorous, jesting, jocose, jocular, pleasant, rollicking, sportive, waggish), nevetséges (absurd, comic, comical, farcical, foolish, laughable, mummery, ridiculous, risible, undignified), komikus (comedian, comic, comical, funny, funny man, laughable, stooge), kacagtató, játékos (gambler, man, men, player, playful, pone, scrub, sportful, sportive, wanton), groteszk (bizarre, fantastic, fantasy, grotesque, surreal). (various references) | |
Italian | sciocco (addled, booby, daffy, daft, doltish, featherbrain, fool, foolish, goofy, Gotham, inane, Looby, loon, nincompoop, nitwit, noodle, sap, silly, simper, soppy, spoony, stupid), ridicolo (absurd, antic, comic, comical, laughable, paltry, preposterous, ridicule, ridiculous, ridiculousness, risible, silly), comico (comedian, comic, comical, freaky, funniness, funny, laughable). (various references) | |
Korean | 익살맞은 (Comical). (various references) | |
Manx | gannidagh (affronting, bantering, derider, derisive, mocker, mocking). (various references) | |
Norwegian | latterlig (laughable). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | udicrouslay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ridículo (apish, awful, comic, comical, derisive, derisory, extravagant, farcical, foolish, irony, laughable, preposterous, quizzical, ragtime, ridicule, ridiculous, risible, satire), grotesco (antic, bizarre, freak, grotesque, ragtime, ridiculous), caricato (ragtime, ridiculous), burlesco (burlesque, comic, comical, doggerel, facetious, farcical, laughable, mock, quizzical, ridiculous, simulated), absurdo (absurd, absurdity, bloodcurdling, foolish, ill-placed, impertinent, incongruous, inept, irrational, monstrous, nonsense, nonsensical, preposterous, ragtime, ridiculous, rubbish, unreason). (various references) | |
Romanian | ridicol (clownish, derisive, farcical, foolish, grotesque, humorous, laughable, laughably, preposterous, ridicule, ridiculous, ridiculously, risible), grotesc (antic, grotesque, peculiar), de râs (derisive, laughing, risible), comic (clownish, comic, comical, comically, droll, funny, humorous, jocular, ludicrously, screaming), buf (bang, slapstick, smash), absurd (absurd, absurdity, absurdly, Dotty, fabulous, foolish, impossible, inept, irrational, mad, mindless, nonsensical, piffling, preposterous, recondite, ridiculous, silly, stupid, temerarious, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Russian | смешной (amusing, comic, comical, farcical, funny, humorous, jokey, laughable, laughing, merry, risible), нелепый (absurd, grotesque, nonsensical, preposterous, ragtime, ridicule, ridiculous, ungodly). (various references) | |
Scottish | briosuirneach. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | smešan (amusing, comical, droll, funny, hilarious, laughable, rich, ridicule, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Spanish | ridículo (absurd, farcical, ridicule, ridiculous, silly), necio (apish, clod, fatuous, featherbrained, fool, foolish, loggerhead, poor, silly, simper, vacuous). (various references) | |
Swedish | orimlig (absurd, exorbitant, extortionate, extravagant, fantastic, fantastical, incongruous, irrational, preposterous, senseless, unconscionable, unreasonable), löjlig (absurd, derisive, derisory, foolish, funny, laughable, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Thai | น่าเย้ยหยัน. (various references) | |
Turkish | komik (amusing, burlesque, comedian, comic, comical, droll, farcical, funny, funnyman, gilbertian, humorous, jesting, jocose, laugh, laughable, laughing, quizzical, rich, ridiculous, risible, rum, rummy), gülünç (amusing, burlesque, camp, comic, derisive, derisory, droll, fantastic, fantastical, foolish, funny, gilbertian, grotesque, humorous, jesting, laughable, ridiculous). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | смішний (amusing, boffo, capricious, comic, comical, droll, funny, laughable, risible, zany), безглуздий (absurd, addle-brained, addle-pated, barmy, blind, brainless, brute, crack-brained, crazy, foolish, idiotic, idiotical, impertinent, insane, meaningless, nail biting, nonsensical, pointless, preposterous, senseless, wanton, wet). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lố lăng (ridiculous), lố bịch (absurd, comical, grotesque, preposterous, priceless, ridiculous), bu"n cười (droll, funny, jocular, quizzical, ridiculous), đáng cười. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ludicrous": ludicrously, ludicrousness, ludicrousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ludicrous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: loudicrous, ludacrous, ludicious, ludicous, ludicrious, ludicris, ludicroos, ludicrouc, ludicrousy, ludicruous, Ludicrus, ludicurous, ludricous, ludricrous, luducrous, luidicrous. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ludicrous" (pronounced luw"dukrus) |
| 3 | -r u s | actress, ambassadress, ambidextrous, arris, Brontosaurus, buttress, chorus, Cirrus, citrus, congress, Cypress, Cyprus, cytomegalovirus, desirous, dextrous, disastrous, embarrass, estrous, estrus, ferrous, fibrous, fortress, hantavirus, headmistress, heiress, hubris, huntress, hydrous, idolatrous, Iris, lustrous, Madras, maquiladoras, mattress, mistress, monstrous, Morris, nitrous, nonferrous, ogress, polyandrous, porous, puris, retrovirus, seamstress, sorus, stegosaurus, temptress, terrace, thesaurus, Tyrannosaurus, virus, waitress, walrus, wondrous. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-i-l-o-r-s-u-u" | |
-2 letters: curious. | |
-3 letters: clouds, clours, coulis, curios, durocs, oculus. | |
-4 letters: clods, cloud, clour, coils, coirs, colds, cords, could, cruds, curds, curio, curls, diols, dirls, disco, dolci, duroc, duros, idols, lidos, locus, lords, loris, louis, lours, lucid, ludic, lurid, oculi, roils, scold, scour, scrod, scudi, scudo, sloid, sodic, soldi, solid, sudor, sulci. | |
-5 letters: clod, cods, coil. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-d-i-l-o-r-s-u-u" | |
+1 letter: ridiculous. | |
+2 letters: incredulous, ludicrously. | |
+3 letters: douroucoulis, glucuronides, ridiculously. | |
+4 letters: glucuronidase, incredulously, ludicrousness. | |
+5 letters: discourteously, glucuronidases, ridiculousness. | |
| 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. Sounds 7. Quotations: Historic 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
