What's the difference between absurdity and unreason?

Absurdity


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment.
  • (n.) That which is absurd; an absurd action; a logical contradiction.

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.

Unreason


Definition:

  • (n.) Want of reason; unreasonableness; absurdity.
  • (v. t.) To undo, disprove, or refute by reasoning.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the three cases examined, the panel said that none "represents subversion of the peer review process nor unreasonable attempts to influence the editorial policy of journals".
  • (2) Ensure data protection rules don’t place unreasonable costs on business.
  • (3) Unreasonable expectations and expansion of the health sector have spawned counterproductive effects which are to some extent detrimental to public health.
  • (4) She said aggression or abuse were never acceptable, but NHS contracts obliged GPs to give a warning before removing patients, in most cases, with the exception of cases where this would pose a risk or it was unreasonable to do so.
  • (5) It is wiser, in the light of results reporting individual differences in the existence and extent of the paradox, and its sensitivity to stimulus conditions, to side with Blake and Fox (1973) when they observed that it is not unreasonable to suppose that various stimulus conditions might yield varying amounts of summation or even inhibition.
  • (6) It was concluded that treatment with enalapril was well tolerated and it is, therefore, unreasonable to restrict the initiation of treatment with enalapril to inpatients.
  • (7) This paper, presented as part of a panel on the subject, has propounded the view that the defense is unconscionable, using that aspect of the definition dealing with unreasonableness.
  • (8) Thus, EDS seems to be a "safe" diagnosis, and it is not unreasonable to assume that it could represent a disease entity.
  • (9) The surveyor is proud to announce, "I can assure my readers that Walden has a reasonably tight bottom at a not unreasonable, though at an unusual, depth."
  • (10) Speaking of the Chilcot inquiry this week, David Cameron said: "It would be unreasonable to postpone it beyond the next election," with his eyes clearly on the prize rather than a genuine interest in justice.
  • (11) "If they quoted unreasonable rates, they might lose the opportunity to work again."
  • (12) Most frequent efforts were to pass state statutes making it unreasonably difficult to obtain an abortion.
  • (13) Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said: “This is an excellent ruling – and supports our view that people coming to the UK who don’t have sufficient resources to support themselves and would become an unreasonable burden should not be able to access national welfare systems.
  • (14) The suit says the helmets were unreasonably dangerous and unsafe.
  • (15) The demands become especially unreasonable at holiday time, when politicians can be portrayed as indifferent to the public suffering or inconvenience.
  • (16) Also, as we gain further understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of brain injury, it is not unreasonable to expect improved pharmacologic therapy of the various sequelae of brain injury.
  • (17) Neither have unreasonably low determinations of viability.
  • (18) Kenton's alliance with Zaleshoff isn't always an easy one - the journalist is unimpressed by the spy's attempt to fob him off with the official Stalinist line on Trotskyite subversion, for example, and Zaleshoff is, not unreasonably, suspicious of Kenton's motives for helping him - but it's kept afloat by the undercurrent of sexual attraction between Kenton and Zaleshoff's sister.
  • (19) Heydon made the not unreasonable point that it was strange for someone to seek an early appearance at the royal commission if they didn’t intend to cooperate fully and answer questions.
  • (20) But it sees the recovery gathering pace and growth almost doubling in 2011 – forecasts that King today described as not "unreasonable".