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Absurd vs Aberrant - What's the difference?

absurd | aberrant |

As adjectives the difference between absurd and aberrant

is that absurd is 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 while aberrant is differing from the norm.

As nouns the difference between absurd and aberrant

is that absurd is an absurdity while aberrant is a person or object that deviates from the rest of a group.

absurd

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • 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.
  • * 1591 , (William Shakespeare), , V-iv
    • This proffer is absurd and reasonless.
  • * ca. 1710 , (Alexander Pope)
    • This phrase absurd to call a villain great
  • * , chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd , but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.}}
  • (obsolete) Inharmonious; dissonant.
  • Having no rational or orderly relationship to people's lives; meaningless; lacking order or value.
  • * (rfdate) Adults have condemned them to live in what must seem like an absurd universe. - Joseph Featherstone
  • Dealing with absurdism.

    • Usage notes

    * More and most absurd are the preferred or more common form of the comparable, as opposed to absurder and absurdest. * Among the synonyms: ** Irrational is the weakest, denoting that which is plainly inconsistent with the dictates of sound reason; as, an irrational course of life. ** Foolish rises higher, and implies either a perversion of that faculty, or an absolute weakness or fatuity of mind; as, foolish enterprises. ** Absurd rises still higher, denoting that which is plainly opposed to received notions of propriety and truth; as, an absurd man, project, opinion, story, argument, etc. ** Preposterous rises still higher, and supposes an absolute inversion'' in the order of things; or, in plain terms, a "putting of the cart before the horse;" as, a ''preposterous'' suggestion, ''preposterous'' conduct, a ''preposterous regulation or law.

    Synonyms

    * foolish, irrational, ridiculous, preposterous, inconsistent, incongruous, ludicrous * See also

    Derived terms

    * absurdly, absurdity * Absurdistan

    Noun

    (en noun) (Absurdism)
  • (obsolete) An absurdity.
  • (philosophy) 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.

    • Usage notes

    * (philosophy) Absurd is sometimes preceded by the word the .

    Derived terms

    * theatre of the absurd

    References

    * * ----

    aberrant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Differing from the norm.
  • (sometimes, figuratively) Straying from the right way; deviating from morality or truth.
  • (botany, zoology) Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; abnormal.
  • * ,
    • The more aberrant any form is, the greater must have been the number of connecting forms which, on my theory, have been exterminated.

    Derived terms

    * aberrance * aberrancy * aberration * aberrational * aberrantly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person or object that deviates from the rest of a group.
  • (biology) A group, individual, or structure that deviates from the usual or natural type, especially with an atypical chromosome number.

    • References

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