Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A philosophy, often translated into art forms, holding that humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe and that any search for order by them will bring them into direct conflict with this universe.
  • noun An act or instance of the ridiculous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable Absurdity, something that is absurd

Etymologies

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Examples

  • New York Times calls him "... an expert at ferreting out hypocrisy and absurdism from the more solemn crannies of American culture."

    Boing Boing: May 7, 2006 - May 13, 2006 Archives 2006

  • A tale of wandering, bickering exorcists who cleanse the secrets lurking in people's closets, the movie combines an ambitious sense of playful fantastical absurdism with an underlying heartbeat of melancholic mourning.

    Mark Kermode's DVD round-up Mark Kermode 2010

  • It's romantic absurdism with fangs, and I suspect it's the sort of thing you either love or hate.

    Genre Fiction 2010

  • "Ataxia, the Wooden Continent" continues the absurdism, but does so with entries from an encyclopedia of a floating continent full of sentient wood.

    Genre Fiction 2010

  • Each abuse deftly combines esoteric absurdism and audacious vulgarity to provide an instantly quotable collection of derision.

    IN THE LOOP DVD Review – Collider.com 2010

  • They include Mr. Shakhnazarov's perestroika-era "Zero City" 1988, a surreal allegory laced with absurdism, which screened in a series on Russian fantastic cinema.

    A Russian Titan Embraces the Web Kristin M. Jones 2011

  • Karlovic's commentary ranges from self-deprecation to self-defense to heckling of other tennis Tweeters to absurdism.

    Words of Wisdom Provided by Dr. Ivo 2011

  • The absurdism and surrealism extends also to one character with Asperger's syndrome, who is himself something of a metaphor for the Soviet system.

    February Books 4) Kushiel's Scion, by Jacqueline Carey nwhyte 2010

  • Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the more current philosophy known as absurdism.

    intertribal: burn the streets, burn the cars, pa-pa-power, pa-pa-power intertribal 2010

  • The distance – inflected with nostalgia and absurdism – is essential, because one of the things Stezaker is engaged in is a daring rescue of images from the memory dump of the recent past.

    Brian Dillon on John Stezaker at the Whitechapel Gallery 2011

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