the absurd
3
9.8
- noun
- /ði əˈsɜrd/
- Formal
:
lo absurdo
- In the play, the characters often find themselves in situations that highlight the concept of the absurd, emphasizing the meaningless struggle of human existence.
- borders on the absurd
Kamu doesn't think that that's what taking the absurd seriously really means.
- Kamu doesn't think that that's what taking the absurd seriously really means.
- So Dostoevsky in a certain way is even better at the absurd than than Kafka is.
Examples
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Many philosophers argue that the absurd arises when we seek meaning in a world that is inherently indifferent to our desires.
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From this perspective, it is generally agreed among existentialists that Beckett's play is a typical theatrical representation of the absurd experience of vacancy.
Academic text (1997) -
"Just for my own personal sense of the absurd."
Fiction book (1994) -
There are many ways to deal with the absurd, and one of them is to describe it absurdly.
Blog text (18) -
As a result, we have the absurd conversation between an astrophysicist and a photographer.
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What I did want to bring up was the absurd discussion that surrounded the nature of the Gronkowski injury.
Blog text (13) -
While this may sound grim, the Absurd blends its hopelessness with humor.
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The show confronts the absurd head on, but it doesn't just confront it, it fights it.
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How is it that the professional psychologist, as a writer, navigates between the shoals of the banal and the absurd?
Academic text (1990) -
That he had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating from college, and now he was emancipated from that world of abstraction, false security, parents and material excess, the things that cut Chris off from the truth of his existence.
Synonyms
54
6.1
Something very silly that goes against common sense
12
6.2
A lack of clear, logical thinking
1
8.8
The belief that human life has no meaning and seeking purpose is useless
1
8.4
A feeling that life and events have no meaning or reason
A situation that is very strange and does not make sense
How Absurd
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + absurd
The phrase is a simple nominalization: the definite article + 'absurd' conveys 'the state or quality of being absurd', so a B1 learner who knows 'absurd' can reasonably infer it refers to absurdity. However, the specific philosophical sense (Camusian 'the Absurd' as a theory about human existence and meaning) is a technical extension not fully predictable from the parts, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
The absurd comes from a strong image of a person pushing a heavy stone up a hill only to have it roll back down. So, it means the feeling that life is 'meaningless' because our search for clear meaning often fails.