Absurd vs Scanty - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between absurd and scanty

is that absurd is absurd while scanty is somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.

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

* * ----

scanty

English

Adjective

(er)

Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.

* {{quote-book, year=1864–1865, author=Charles Dickens, title=

, passage=Present on the table, one scanty' pot of tea, one '''scanty''' loaf, two '''scanty''' pats of butter, two ' scanty rashers of bacon, two pitiful eggs, and an abundance of handsome china bought a secondhand bargain.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1979, author=by B. Jonson, title=

, passage=Traditions older than paleoarctic, as scanty as the evidence may be, show clearly that colonization of Alberta and even as far north as southern Alaska came from the south.}}

Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.

* I. Watts.

In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

Derived terms

* scantily * scantiness

External links

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