Skip to content
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

absurd

/əbˈsɚd/

Press play to hear how to pronounce absurd.

American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
Watch on YouTube ↗

What does absurd mean?

adjective

  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.
  2. Having no rational or orderly relationship to people's lives; meaningless; lacking order or value.
  3. Dealing with absurdism.
More meanings (3)

noun

  1. 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.
  2. (obsolete) An absurdity.

adjective

  1. (obsolete) Inharmonious; dissonant.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/əbˈsɚd/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/əbˈzɚd//æbˈsɚd//æbˈzɚd/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

He seemed suddenly to realise his unhappiness, and though he knew he was making himself still more absurd, he began to cry.
W. Somerset (William Somerset) MaughamThe Moon and SixpenceProject Gutenberg ebook #222
His robes transformed me into such an absurd caricature of a preacher that it was quite impossible for me to wear them.
Anna Howard Shaw; Elizabeth Garver JordanThe Story of a PioneerProject Gutenberg ebook #354
More book examples (3)
He was eminently "sound," and denounced the Copernican theory in his lectures as "absurd, and unfit to be introduced into the schools."
Andrew Dickson WhiteHistory of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomProject Gutenberg ebook #505
No greater exemplification of it could be given, than the wise and religious rules of the absurd and blasphemous trial by battle.
Charles MackayMemoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions — Volume 1Project Gutenberg ebook #636
The most common opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the priests the title of bridge-makers.
PlutarchPlutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and RomansProject Gutenberg ebook #674