What's the difference between irrational and preposterous?

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."

Preposterous


Definition:

  • (a.) Having that first which ought to be last; inverted in order.
  • (a.) Contrary to nature or reason; not adapted to the end; utterly and glaringly foolish; unreasonably absurd; perverted.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Reading these latest statistics, it’s crucial that our generation – millennials, Gen Y, whatever we want to call ourselves – abandons this preposterous narrative.
  • (2) You could understand why the Met was frantic to find who had stabbed Rachel Nickell 49 times on Wimbledon Common while her screaming child looked on, but the case against Stagg was preposterous.
  • (3) Preposterous claims by ministers that cutting tax credits means “cultural change” for people already in work show how far this is from being the “workers’ party”.
  • (4) The league looks more preposterous still, however, if you simply ignore Muresul Deva for a moment.
  • (5) China's foreign ministry called the allegations preposterous and accused the US of double standards.
  • (6) So I said: "Isn't it preposterous that you're so cheap?"
  • (7) Most preposterous has been the British prime minister David Cameron lecturing Greeks on their responsibilities from outside the eurozone .
  • (8) This is why, preposterously, America is able to confirm plans to send four shiny F-16 fighter jets to Egyptian military on Thursday, while still talking democracy and inclusion for Egypt's transitional process.
  • (9) "It is perplexing and preposterous to hear human rights complaints from the US, where torture and kidnapping are legal in the 21st century."
  • (10) But the State Department's indignation over the leaks of allegedly valuable secrets was, and remains, preposterous.
  • (11) There's the pot that presidential hopefuls admit to having smoked in a youthful-experiment-type way, and there's the pot criminals currently serving life sentences under preposterous three strikes legislation were caught with.
  • (12) In common usage, “myth” is at best the word we use to refer to amusingly preposterous urban legends – tales about albino alligators in the Manhattan sewers or the Holy Grail’s hiding place under the floor of a Paris shopping mall.
  • (13) What happens, we’ve seen as a case study, is what happened in Greece.” He added: “I think she was suggesting if Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party got the chance to impose its fiscal policies on the United Kingdom that is a very real threat.” A spokesman for Corbyn described the claims as “preposterous”.
  • (14) The notion that it might start with another body on another beach seemed preposterous if not a little cheapening of what went before.
  • (15) That the LMA has sought to criticise the club for the timing of the report to the FA is preposterous, because the offensive communications have been in the knowledge and possession of the LMA for many months.
  • (16) Miliband, as I observed some time ago in a piece for ConservativeHome , should have dismissed as a preposterous anachronism the Tory attack on the trade union link.
  • (17) A nurse who faces being struck off over a botched Ebola screening at Heathrow airport has said it is “preposterous” that she would have concealed knowledge that Pauline Cafferkey was unwell.
  • (18) The size of the hole that Iran is in,” Szubin said, “we’re talking about a hole that could be described in one sense as a $200bn hole, which are the losses that we assess they’ve suffered since 2012 due to sanctions.” However the representatives had little patience for many of Blinken’s arguments, with Democrat Brad Sherman saying it was “preposterous” to believe Iran would adhere to a deal.
  • (19) Barroso's comments provoked a furious response from senior SNP figures, who said his views were "pretty preposterous" and based on a false comparison.
  • (20) Taking aim at a "preposterously over-regulated system," Johnson also claims that "bureaucracy and politial correctness is gradually asphyxiating the BBC".