Absurd vs Abnormal - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between absurd and abnormal

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 abnormal is not conforming to rule or system; deviating from the usual or normal type.

As nouns the difference between absurd and abnormal

is that absurd is an absurdity while abnormal is a person or object that is not normal.

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

* * ----

abnormal

English

Alternative forms

* anormal * (obsolete) abnormous

Adjective

(en adjective)

Not conforming to rule or system; deviating from the usual or normal type.

* 1899 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), A Duet , ch. 6:

And then after an abnormal meal, which was either a very late breakfast or a very early lunch, they drove on to Victoria Station.

Of or pertaining to that which is abnormal, in particular, behaviour that deviates from norms of social propriety or accepted standards of mental health.

* 1904 , (Jack London), The Sea Wolf , ch. 23:

Furuseth was right; I was abnormal , an "emotionless monster," a strange bookish creature, capable of pleasuring in sensations only of the mind.

Synonyms

* aberrant, anomalous, atypical, exceptional, extraordinary, irregular, odd, strange, unusual.

Noun

(en noun)

A person or object that is not normal.

References

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