ABSURD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does absurd mean? 

• ABSURD (noun)
  The noun ABSURD has 1 sense:

1. a situation in which life seems irrational and meaningless

  Familiarity information: ABSURD used as a noun is very rare.

• ABSURD (adjective)
  The adjective ABSURD has 2 senses:

1. inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense

2. so unreasonable as to invite derision

  Familiarity information: ABSURD used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABSURD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A situation in which life seems irrational and meaningless

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

absurd; the absurd

Context example:

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth

Hypernyms ("absurd" is a kind of...):

situation; state of affairs (the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time)

• ABSURD (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense

Context example:

the absurd predicament of seeming to argue that virtue is highly desirable but intensely unpleasant

Similar:

illogical; unlogical (lacking in correct logical relation)

Derivation:

absurdity; absurdness (a message whose content is at variance with reason)

Sense 2

Meaning:

So unreasonable as to invite derision

Synonyms:

absurd; cockeyed; derisory; idiotic; laughable; ludicrous; nonsensical; preposterous; ridiculous

Context example:

her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous

Similar:

foolish (devoid of good sense or judgment)

Derivation:

absurdity (a ludicrous folly)

absurdness (a message whose content is at variance with reason)

 Context examples 

I told her frankly that I wished to see who it was who played such absurd tricks upon us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Such a charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Oh, I must tell you what that absurd Lennox did!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“How absurd you are, Peggotty!” returned my mother.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But Silver laughed at him aloud and slapped him on the back as if the idea of alarm had been absurd.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"It's rather absurd, Mr. Eden, to have caught us in this shape," Mr. Ford preambled airily.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

My first idea was that I had been the victim of some absurd practical joke.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“One has either to rise at a perfectly absurd hour, or else to neglect one’s toilet.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But as to your ideas that the man had robbed the house before William tackled him, I think it a most absurd notion.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It puzzles me now to remember with what absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and capable of sensation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)