1
as in surreal
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2
as in incomprehensible
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Recent Examples of Kafkaesque
Those who value and respect America but couldn’t find their way through the Kafkaesque immigration system deserve a chance to rectify their situation.
—
Agustina Vergara Cid, Oc Register, 10 Aug. 2025
In a Kafkaesque twist, Trump’s chart assigns Eswatini the lowest possible (10 percent) reciprocal tariff, despite the fact the nation applies the same external tariffs as Lesotho.
—Robert Goulder, Forbes.com, 28 July 2025
To be fair, dealing with any healthcare bureaucracy in America is sure to be frustrating and annoying, and will most likely turn into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
—Emily Cegielski, Flow Space, 27 June 2025
Obtaining a permit to fly a drone in Nepal as a foreigner was a somewhat Kafkaesque exercise in patience.
—Ben Ayers, Outside Online, 6 May 2025
These are intentional Kafkaesque problems that the Trump Administration is creating.
—Grace Byron, New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2025
No one wants to have their family vacation turned into some Kafkaesque nightmare at the hands of ICE agents emboldened by the country's general climate of incipient fascism.
—Matt Robison, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Apr. 2025
That standard was used to suppress the speech of faculty, such as Northwestern professor Laura Kipnis, who in a Kafkaesque turn was the subject of a legal complaint by students under Title IX for writing an op-ed column criticizing the Obama view of Title IX.
—The Editors, National Review, 16 Apr. 2025
Agustina Vergara Cid, Oc Register, 10 Aug. 2025
In a Kafkaesque twist, Trump’s chart assigns Eswatini the lowest possible (10 percent) reciprocal tariff, despite the fact the nation applies the same external tariffs as Lesotho.
—Robert Goulder, Forbes.com, 28 July 2025
To be fair, dealing with any healthcare bureaucracy in America is sure to be frustrating and annoying, and will most likely turn into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
—Emily Cegielski, Flow Space, 27 June 2025
Obtaining a permit to fly a drone in Nepal as a foreigner was a somewhat Kafkaesque exercise in patience.
—Ben Ayers, Outside Online, 6 May 2025
These are intentional Kafkaesque problems that the Trump Administration is creating.
—Grace Byron, New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2025
No one wants to have their family vacation turned into some Kafkaesque nightmare at the hands of ICE agents emboldened by the country's general climate of incipient fascism.
—Matt Robison, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Apr. 2025
That standard was used to suppress the speech of faculty, such as Northwestern professor Laura Kipnis, who in a Kafkaesque turn was the subject of a legal complaint by students under Title IX for writing an op-ed column criticizing the Obama view of Title IX.
—The Editors, National Review, 16 Apr. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Kafkaesque
Adjective
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The narrative features, however, such as 2010’s My Joy or 2017’s A Gentle Creature, were rich, rambling, surreal, maximalist, following characters on absurd quests through cross sections of bureaucracy and society.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
24 Mar. 2026
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From crashing a friend's luau to searching for the sweetest spot to take a nap, avoiding work quickly spirals into thwarting surreal disasters…in the most hilarious and entertaining of ways.—
Taijuan Moorman,
USA Today,
23 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The permanent layoff of approximately 300 workers at the Searles Valley Minerals Trona plant will have an incomprehensible impact on our High Desert communities.—
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh,
Oc Register,
21 Mar. 2026
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If not for the frame of the goal and an incomprehensible Riccardo Califiori block, the outlook of the game could have been very different going into the break.—
Mark Carey,
New York Times,
16 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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But with this unusual warmth, Greene warns even that may not be enough.—
Callie Zanandrie,
CBS News,
20 Mar. 2026
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As Southern California’s unusual March heat wave continues, several daily temperature records were broken across the region on Wednesday, March 18.—
City News Service,
Daily News,
19 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Strange occurrences quickly destabilize the group, with the writer becoming increasingly unhinged, convinced the location has an inexplicable hold over her creative faculties.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
17 Mar. 2026
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There are few things that bring me pure, inexplicable joy.—
Jenn Harris,
Los Angeles Times,
9 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Though the process of how it is utilized can be debated, having emergency stocks of a vital resource subject to supply crises can hardly be called irrational.—
Scott L. Montgomery,
The Conversation,
23 Mar. 2026
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My greatest irrational fear was that the machine might squeeze far tighter than necessary and I’d just be stuck there in immense pain until someone unplugged the cord.—
Zachary Bernstein,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The movie explores a few unique forms that extraterrestrial life could take, from space microorganisms that produce both infrared light and an unfathomable amount of energy, to rocklike aliens that live under crushing pressure and breathe ammonia.—
Mary Magnuson,
The Conversation,
20 Mar. 2026
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Like a flower that somehow emerges through concrete, love can blossom even in a space of unfathomable violence.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
19 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The strange circumstances of his last weeks have the quality of a nightmare from which the Samsas awake.—
Christine Smallwood,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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But his arrest and conviction in 2024 had been preceded a year earlier by a strange story that appeared in the press and then disappeared almost as quickly.—
K.J. Yossman,
Variety,
24 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Instead, first-time director Fergus Campbell drops us directly into Cleo’s world — no parents, no rules and every authority figure is obscured, like the unintelligible adults in Peanuts cartoons.—
Jourdain Searles,
HollywoodReporter,
20 Mar. 2026
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Later audio intel from subsidiary figures is likewise frequently rendered unintelligible by distortion, staticky transmission, etc.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
2 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Kafkaesque.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Kafkaesque. Accessed 25 Mar. 2026.
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