Weird vs Absurd - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between weird and absurd

is that weird is connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate 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 nouns the difference between weird and absurd

is that weird is fate; destiny; luck while absurd is an absurdity.

As a verb weird

is to destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.

weird

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(er)

Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.

Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.

* Longfellow

Those sweet, low tones, that seemed like a weird incantation.

* Shakespeare, Macbeth , Act 1 Scene 5

Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me, 'Thane of Cawdor'; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that shalt be!'

Having supernatural or preternatural power.

There was a weird light shining above the hill.

Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.

There are lots of weird people in this place.

Deviating from the normal; bizarre.

It was quite weird to bump into all my ex-girlfriends on the same day.

(archaic) Of or pertaining to the Fates.

Usage notes

* Weird is one of the most noted exceptions to the (I before E except after C) spelling heuristic.

Synonyms

* (having supernatural or preternatural power) eerie, uncanny * (unusually strange in character or behaviour) fremd, oddball, peculiar, whacko * (deviating from the normal) bizarre, fremd, odd, out of the ordinary, strange * (of or pertaining to the Fates) fateful * See also

Derived terms

* weirdo * weirdly * weirdness * weird out

Noun

(en noun)

(archaic) Fate; destiny; luck.

* 1912 , , trans. Arthur S. Way (Heinemenn 1946, p. 361)

In the weird of death shall the hapless be whelmed, and from Doom’s dark prison / Shall she steal forth never again.

A prediction.

(obsolete, Scotland) A spell or charm.

(Sir Walter Scott)

That which comes to pass; a fact.

(archaic, in the plural) The Fates (personified).

Synonyms

* (l)

Derived terms

* * weirdless

Verb

(en verb)

To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.

To warn solemnly; adjure.

See weird out .

That joke really weirded me out.

Anagrams

* * * English words not following the I before E except after C rule ----

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

* * ----