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Insane vs Absurd - What's the difference?

insane | absurd | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between insane and absurd

is that insane is exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; mad; deranged in mind; delirious; distracted while 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.

As a noun absurd is

an absurdity.

insane

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; mad; deranged in mind; delirious; distracted.
  • * '>citation
    • What is the cause of insanity?
    Nobody can answer such a sweeping question as that,
    but we know that certain diseases, such as syphilis, break
    down and destroy the brain cells and result in insanity. In
    fact, about one-half of all mental diseases can be attributed
    to such physical causes as brain lesions, alcohol, toxins,
    and injuries. But the other half—and this is the appalling
    part of the story—the other half of the people who go in-
    sane' apparently have nothing organically wrong with
    their brain cells. In post-mortem examinations, when their
    brain tissues are studied under the highest-powered micro-
    scopes, they are found to be apparently just as healthy as
    yours and mine.
    Why do these people go '     insane     ?
  • Used by, or appropriated to, insane persons; as, an insane hospital.
  • Causing insanity or madness.
  • Characterized by insanity or the utmost folly; chimerical; unpractical; as, an insane plan, attempt, etc.
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The preposterous altruism too!

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * sane

    Related terms

    * insanity

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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

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