Absurdity

How to spell absurdity

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce absurdity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does absurdity mean?

1. nounThe quality of being ridiculous, illogical, or contrary to common sense; a thing that is plainly foolish.

Absurdity in a sentence

• The committee finally recognised the absurdity of charging staff to park at their own workplace.

• He pointed out the absurdity of buying a bigger freezer when the kitchen had no room for it.

Where does absurdity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin absurdus, an adjective meaning 'out of tune', 'discordant', and by extension 'irrational' or 'silly'. It was built from the intensifying prefix ab- attached to surdus, which literally meant 'deaf', 'dull', or 'mute', so the original image was of a sound so jarring or senseless that it offended the ear. From absurdus came the late Latin noun absurditas, the quality of being ludicrous or contrary to reason. English took the word in during the 1500s, partly through French absurdité, and applied it to anything plainly foolish or self-contradictory. The same surdus root quietly survives in mathematics, where a 'surd' is an irrational root, a neat reminder that the 'surd' in the middle of absurdity carries the idea of the irrational.

How the word is built

• ab- (intensive, from Latin)
• surd (from surdus: deaf, dull, irrational)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)