reductio ad absurdum

[ ri-duhk-tee-oh adab-sur-duhm, -zur-, -shee-oh ]

/ rɪˈdʌk tiˌoʊ ˈæd æbˈsɜr dəm, -ˈzɜr-, -ʃiˌoʊ /

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noun Logic.

a reduction to an absurdity; the refutation of a proposition by demonstrating the inevitably absurd conclusion to which it would logically lead.

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Origin of reductio ad absurdum

First recorded in 1735–45, reductio ad absurdum is from Latin reductiō ad absurdum

Words nearby reductio ad absurdum

reducing agent, reducing glass, reduct, reductase, reductase test, reductio ad absurdum, reduction, reduction division, reduction formula, reductionism, reductionist

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use reductio ad absurdum in a sentence

It would be only fitting, the reductio ad absurdum of our divided age, for this election to take two extra months.
How This Election Could Go to January|Michael Tomasky|October 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As symbol, Phelps was the reductio ad absurdum of many conservative beliefs.
Fred Phelps, Friend of the Gays|Jay Michaelson|March 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Palermo practiced a reductio ad absurdum without quite becoming absurd.
Meet the Daring Blinky Palermo|Blake Gopnik|March 17, 2011|DAILY BEAST
It seeks to establish truth by refuting error through the reductio ad absurdum.
Beacon Lights of History, Volume I|John Lord

He is to biology what the late Camille Flammarion was to astronomy, which is to say, its court jester and reductio ad absurdum.
Damn!|Henry Louis Mencken
Not even the transformed "Tom Thumb" could be called an effective reductio ad absurdum of the Italian opera of those days.
A Book of Burlesque|Willam Davenport Adams
His pictures look like a visible reductio ad absurdum of it all.
Essays on Art|A. Clutton-Brock
To suppose, therefore, that the limitations of the law are an integral portion of the law itself is a reductio ad absurdum.
The Creative Process in the Individual|Thomas Troward

British Dictionary definitions for reductio ad absurdum

reductio ad absurdum

/ (rɪˈdʌktɪəʊ æd æbˈsɜːdəm) /

noun

a method of disproving a proposition by showing that its inevitable consequences would be absurd

a method of indirectly proving a proposition by assuming its negation to be true and showing that this leads to an absurdity

application of a principle or proposed principle to an instance in which it is absurd

Word Origin for reductio ad absurdum

Latin, literally: reduction to the absurd

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012