Absurd means so unreasonable that it is almost funny. An absurd suggestion, absurd prices, the whole thing is absurd.
It is stronger than silly and more contemptuous than ridiculous: calling something absurd says it does not deserve an argument. The theatre of the absurd is a named twentieth-century movement — Beckett, Ionesco — built on the idea that existence has no inherent meaning, and the absurd in that philosophical sense is a serious term rather than a joke. Note absurdity, the noun, and absurdly, which is common before adjectives: absurdly cheap.
1adjectiveabsurdSo unreasonable it is almost funny.
“The price was absurd and people paid it.”
synonyms: ridiculous, preposterous
absurd is a quality of unreasonableness.
Also accepted in games: ridiculous
Latin absurdus meant out of tune, from surdus, deaf or muffled. The same surdus gives surd in mathematics and absurd in English, so the word for nonsense began as a musical complaint.
Proto-Indo-European
*swer- (swear)
Latin
absurdus — incongruous, dissonant, out of tune
Middle French
absurde
English, today
absurd
Built from
First attested in 1557. From Middle French absurde, from Latin absurdus (“incongruous, dissonant, out of tune”), from ab (“away from, out”) + surdus (“silent, deaf, dull-sounding”). Compare surd.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA