What's the difference between absurd and irrational?

Absurd


Definition:

  • (a.) Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and fiatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; as, an absurd person, an absurd opinion; an absurd dream.
  • (n.) An absurdity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But Steven Brounstein, a lawyer for one of the officers, said: 'For the DA to be equating this case to a drive-by shooting is absurd.
  • (2) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (3) In any halfway-awake western nation, and, to be frank, in many reaches of British national life, this would be considered an amateurish absurdity, a guarantee of eventual failure.
  • (4) But the same court also just refused to hear an appeal of a Minnesota woman who's been ordered to pay more than $220,000 for downloading two-dozen songs – a testament to Congress' gift to Hollywood and its allies in the form of absurdly stiff penalties for minor infringement.
  • (5) I think the heart of good comedy really lives in truth and reacting to the absurdities, hypocrisies, abuses of power in the world.” Late night television is a no longer a glass of warm milk before bed, it’s a lunch buffet And as TV viewership declines and internet virality becomes as important as real-time eyeballs, cable networks might find that topical comedy is a smart, cost-effective way to grab cross-platform attention.
  • (6) It might seem absurd, but she also fretted about the horrendous poll tax bills received by people she knew, people she knew couldn't pay.
  • (7) He would have seen the absurdity in a chancellor admitting that his sums are so badly out that Britain will borrow more than double this year than the £37bn he originally promised – and claiming that as a triumph.
  • (8) The idea that opposition to the renewal of Trident is an extreme policy confined to the British left is absurd.
  • (9) SC, Manchester Spark Energy, one of Britain's smaller electricity suppliers, failed to notice that your bill was absurd.
  • (10) British officials said it was absurd that at one point Merkel seemed to want to remove most references to the eurozone crisis from the communique.
  • (11) Harry Kane, reminding everyone how absurd it was to think his confidence might be broken, may just have to accept this will not be a night that is remembered for his goal.
  • (12) Karl Habsburg-Lothringen supported his cousin's action: "The Habsburg law is absurd, there's nothing else to be said about it.
  • (13) In fact, the body of evidence about how much it matters is mushrooming, so that it seems almost absurd to anyone who knows anything about children's development that we still think that a baby's physical health at the birth is all that matters.
  • (14) Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling breached all those, absurdly calling objectors 'job snobs'.
  • (15) Last month, along with Slovenia, Croatia and non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia, Austria – which has rejected Brussels’ criticism of its policy as “absurd” – imposed strict new restrictions, including a daily cap on the number of asylum seekers and migrants they would allow to enter their territory.
  • (16) Absurdly, the shops lack local staples – sugar, milk, flour – but are well stocked with subsidised imports such as single-malt whisky and Italian panettone.
  • (17) The idea that human breastmilk may not be good enough for human babies is clearly absurd.
  • (18) The woman snaps out of bed and opens her eyes, absurdly conscious and alive, wonderfully lucid.
  • (19) We are talking here about the absurd.” Ah, the absurd.
  • (20) Each sentence seems more absurd than the last until you are finally and irredeemably overwhelmed by its relentless meaningful meaninglessness.

Irrational


Definition:

  • (a.) Not rational; void of reason or understanding; as, brutes are irrational animals.
  • (a.) Not according to reason; absurd; foolish.
  • (a.) Not capable of being exactly expressed by an integral number, or by a vulgar fraction; surd; -- said especially of roots. See Surd.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Take-out: Apple can still innovate and Apple can still generate irrational lust out of thin air.
  • (2) Irrational fear, anxiety and prejudice are not less common among health professionals than in the community generally; they require attention in HIV-related educational programs.
  • (3) This is the latest rejection for an irrational bully whose brand is increasingly toxic.” Referring to earlier controversial comments made on the US campaign trail, Salmond also said of Trump: His behaviour and comments are unlikely to attract the votes of many Mexican Americans or Muslim Americans.
  • (4) The high prevalence of harmful habits in the young families and also some unfavourable features of their lifestyle were detected (low physical activity, irrational diet, etc).
  • (5) Sure enough, the rowdy crowd in the Fox News audience gave him a lusty boo - the loudest of a rambunctious night and maybe of the entire primary season so far - while Gingrich called him "utterly irrational" for questioning the manner of Bin Laden's killing.
  • (6) There are rationally treatable fears arising from the acute situation (especially in rehabilitation patients) as well as the irrational anxieties of the mainly endogenous depressive.
  • (7) The irrational motivations of refusal (particularly, denial and delusional ideation) have been evoked much more often then rational motivations (therapeutic inefficiency, secondary effects).
  • (8) Although critics have argued that psychiatric medications in correctional settings are often prescribed in a clinically irrational manner, without adequate diagnostic criteria, and for the purposes of coercive control rather than treatment, there has been no systematic research in an attempt to validate these claims.
  • (9) And they should be able to "tolerate high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty and rapid change – and at times irrational political demands".
  • (10) He described Anderson as “highly intelligent,” “irrational,” and “calculated” in the violence he carried out against his former partner, Rosie Batty and their son.
  • (11) The danger is that it will leave their irrational aspects intact, while stripping away the essential protections they offer to our wildlife.
  • (12) In general, providing up-to-date information in a small group setting can effectively reduce irrational fears.
  • (13) People are dying to get into this company because they are on Facebook, it's irrational if you look at the numbers.
  • (14) Debating issues such as unemployment benefits and the rehabilitation of prisoners, I was suddenly propelled into the role of standalone lefty whose views were brandished "dreamy" and "irrational".
  • (15) The most frequent causes for destabilization of the remission were bronchopulmonary infections, incorrect reduction or discontinuing of the medication, formal supportive therapy, psychologic demobilization and irrational supportive therapy.
  • (16) I assert that this state of biological psychiatry is due to its violation of an epistemological criterion of rationality, i.e., the relevance criterion; that is, contemporary biological psychiatry is irrational as it adopts a conception irrelevant to the psychobiological domain.
  • (17) It is contended that these deviations, rather than representing irrational biases, could be due to (a) unspecified information over which causal inferences are computed and (b) the questionable normativeness of the models against which these deviations have been measured.
  • (18) But only now, when the world's biggest economies have been lashed by the fallout from the irrational exuberance of the markets, has the idea captured the imagination of their leaders, including Gordon Brown , right.
  • (19) The combined application of clonidine and prazosin in antihypertensive treatment is probably not only irrational but ought to be discouraged in view of the interaction between the drugs, which leads to a reduced antihypertensive potency of clonidine.
  • (20) He said Iran's enemies had understood the message of the naval exercises, saying: "We have no plan to begin any irrational act but we are ready against any threat."