absurdity

plural absurdities

1. countableThat which is absurd; an absurd action; a logical contradiction.First known use First attested in the late 15ᵗʰ century.

   And it is a fact that in these two days the boy had almost talked over his mother, too; had parried all her objections one after another with that indignant good sense which is often the perfection of absurdity …

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 7, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

2. uncountableThe quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment.First known use First attested in the early 16ᵗʰ century.

   The absurdity of the actual idea of an infinite number

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Neither [Jones][…] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."

   1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii

   There's credit too for highlighting the problems of Manchester's Castlefield Corridor, where he showed the absurdity of building Ordsall Chord to feed more trains into the congested corridor without upgrading the corridor itself.

   2023 July 12, Philip Haigh, “Narrow narrative overlooks past and present achievements”, in RAIL, number 987, page 50

3. countableobsoleterareuncountableDissonance.First known use Attested from around 1350 to 1470 until the late 17ᵗʰ century.