ridiculous
English
Alternative forms
- rediculous (archaic, eye dialect, or misspelling)
- radiculous (rare, obsolete)
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, ridiculous”); Equivalent to ridicule + -ous.
Pronunciation
- (Canada, UK) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈdɪkjʊləs/, /ɹiːˈdɪkjʊləs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈdɪkjələs/
Audio (US): (file) - (Wales) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈdɪkləs/
- Rhymes: -ɪkjələs
Adjective
ridiculous (comparative more ridiculous, superlative most ridiculous)
- Deserving of ridicule; foolish, absurd.
- Synonyms: silly, willy nilly, frivolous, goofy, funny, humorous, absurd, odd, surreal, unreasonable; see also Thesaurus:absurd
- Antonyms: straightforward, serious, somber, solemn
- That hairstyle looks ridiculous.
- It's ridiculous to charge so much for a little souvenir.
- You make ridiculous statements a lot, like saying that UFOs are real.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 161:
- Many of the so-called rites of these secret societies were so patently ridiculous, that it is quite obvious that they were merely an excuse for men and women to indulge in sex-play and lustful gratification, frequently of an abnormal kind.
- (informal) Astonishing, extreme, unbelievable.
- In a ridiculous feat of engineering, the team can calculate the difference in arrival time to within one-tenth of a nanosecond.
- Gaines is a classic motor player with a low center of gravity and ridiculous strength.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
foolish, absurd
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Further reading
- “ridiculous”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “ridiculous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ridiculous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- ridiculous in Britannica Dictionary
- ridiculous in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
- ridiculous in Ozdic collocation dictionary
- ridiculous in WordReference English Collocations