nonsensical
See also: non-sensical
English
editAlternative forms
edit- nonsensic (very rare)
- non-sensical
Etymology
editEtymology tree
Pronunciation
editAudio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
editnonsensical (comparative more nonsensical, superlative most nonsensical)
- Without sense; absurd.
- Synonyms: meaningless, unmeaning, absurd, foolish, irrational, preposterous
- Antonyms: comprehensible, commonsensical, logical, rational, sensible, sensical
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Prudence in Politics”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 179:
- Well, her very foolish grandmother has mixed herself up in some nonsensical correspondence with the court of St. Germains; or, rather, has let herself be made a tool by Mr. Trevanion, who, I am happy to say, is not Ethel's husband; they arrested him just in time.
- 2025 June 7, Paul Rosenzweig, “The Biden Investigation Is a Path to Even Greater Lawlessness”, in The Atlantic[1], archived from the original on 7 June 2025:
- President Donald Trump’s presidential memorandum ordering an investigation of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his use of the autopen […] is also nonsensical fan service, amplifying addled MAGA conspiracy theories that contend, with a straight face, that Biden was really a robotic clone.
- 2025 June 17, Arwa Mahdawi, “What SJP’s selfie trick tells us about the terrifying rise of conspiracy theories”, in The Guardian[2], →ISSN:
- Conspiracy theories have become so mainstream that they are even prompting nonsensical legislation. Earlier this month, Louisiana lawmakers sent a bill to the state’s governor seeking to ban “chemtrails” – which don’t actually exist.
Usage notes
edit- The form non-sensical is much less common while nonsensic is extremely rare.[1]
- Webster 1828 defined this as "Unmeaning; absurd; foolish." Webster 1913 defined this as "Without sense; unmeaning; absurd; foolish; irrational; preposterous."
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editCollocations
editTerms
- word, thing, idea, notion, result, question, language, way, talk, statement, situation, story, argument, reason, stuff, book, jargon, theory, assumption, interpretation
Translations
editwithout sense
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References
editFurther reading
edit- “nonsensical”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “nonsensical”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
- “nonsensical”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
- “nonsensical” (US) / “nonsensical” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *ís
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *né
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₁óynos
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂el- (grow)
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sent- (perceive)
- English terms suffixed with -ical
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
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