adjective
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ludicrous; absurd
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of or relating to farce
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of farcical
Explanation
Something that's farcical is ridiculously funny — absurd, even. When you stumbled onstage, tripping over your costume and pulling down the backdrop, you brought a farcical element to the serious play. If it resembles a farce — a silly comedy that pokes fun at something — you can describe it as farcical, which is pronounced "FAR-cih-kul." Farcical comes from the Latin farcire, "to stuff," which influenced the French farce, a "comic interlude in a mystery play." It's thought that farce came to have this meaning because it was "stuffed" in between acts.
Vocabulary lists containing farcical
100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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"Common Sense," Vocabulary from the pamphlet
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Just Mercy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His adaptation maintains a knockabout, almost farcical pace.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
Everton won 2-1 at Fulham thanks to farcical own goal from Cottagers keeper Bernd Leno.
From Barron's • Feb. 7, 2026
The use of stage direction as couples therapy is one of the more poignant sequences in a film that tends to dance along the line separating the farcical from the bittersweet.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026
England's Ashes tour teetered on another crisis as they were bowled out for 110 by Australia on an almost farcical first day of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025
They dug trenches, secured supply lines and were sent out on night exercises that were farcical for the infantrymen because the purpose was never explained and there was a shortage of weapons.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
