Modifying Another Word

• patently: BBC NEWS | UK | A patently absurd invention?

• manifestly: To have a city like London with no coherent system of government was manifestly absurd.

• palpably: I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.

• faintly: I began to feel that all of this were faintly absurd.

• frankly: On the whole I agree with the Lib Dem principles but even they have policies that I find frankly absurd.

• utterly: It would, therefore, be utterly absurd for all the 25 national groupings to attempt to create their own states.

Infinitive complement

• pretend: It is quite absurd to pretend that the water here is in any sense private.

• imagine: For it would be utterly absurd to imagine every single individual responsible in some way for the Holocaust, all making the right choices.

• argue: It would be absurd to argue that general anxiety abruptly ceased in the ensuing weeks.

• suggest: It would be absurd to suggest that a house could build itself.

• deny: From a common sense point of view it seems absurd to deny the right to communicate.

Modifies a noun

• notion: Where did you get such an absurd notion from?

• accusation: The absurd accusation, that the nobles were conspiring with the enemy without, had made an impression on the " people.

• assertion: Yet these legions of amateur problem-solvers tackle puzzles accompanied by the absurd assertion that " no maths is involved " .

• anomaly: This would eradicate the absurd anomalies in the current system.

• conclusion: To say that species which are native elsewhere in Britain are not native to Scotland leads to absurd conclusions.

• proposition: Although a seemingly absurd proposition, it is still debated by philosophers.

Used with adjective complement

• seem: We need a review of the process, which seems absurd.

• appear: Any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd.

• render: Amazon's promise that the volume ' usually ships within 24 hours ' is rendered absurd.