Kafkaesque

adjective

Definition of Kafkaesquenext
1
as in surreal

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Dissimilar Words
2
as in incomprehensible

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Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of Kafkaesque For the average soccer fan, the quest for 2026 World Cup tickets started last year when FIFA opened its Kafkaesque lottery system. — Natalie B. Compton, Washington Post, 5 June 2026 Much of the book hovers on the edge of reality before diving into moments of Kafkaesque disorder. — Via Catapult, Literary Hub, 5 June 2026 On some level, Hasna senses that such a soulless, Kafkaesque environment has to be hiding worse evils than paycheck withholding and infrequent bathroom breaks. — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 18 May 2026 One major limiting factor for figure skating’s broadcast opportunities has been the sport’s reliance on music, the licensing for which has required Kafkaesque levels of clearance, even in the lead-up to Milan. — Sara Germano, Sportico.com, 24 Mar. 2026 The funniest scenes in One Battle After Another find Leonardo DiCaprio’s explosives expert locked in a Kafkaesque squabble with an operator on a revolutionary hotline. — Craigh Barboza, HollywoodReporter, 15 Mar. 2026 Since then, bank customers have complained that they’re still getting cut out of the financial system, but that firms won’t say why — leaving them in a Kafkaesque limbo. — Tom Schoenberg, Bloomberg, 12 Mar. 2026 The high court agreed, in a 5-4 decision with Kafkaesque logic. — Joe Mathews, Mercury News, 10 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Kafkaesque
  1. surreal
  2. incomprehensible
  3. unusual
  4. inexplicable
  5. irrational
  6. unfathomable
  7. strange
  8. unintelligible
Adjective
  • The Hanna-Barbera cat and mouse — formerly a throwaway bunch of cartoons, now a ‘franchise’ — are all about triflingly menial disputes taken to absurd heights, leading to surreal sight gags and baroque violence.
    — Caspar Salmon, Variety, 5 Sep. 2026
  • The issue lingered late into the week, including the surreal spectacle of the SEC battling LSU in multiple courtrooms.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of surreal
Adjective
  • War of the Worlds fuses post-9/11 paranoia and the terror of parenting to create one of Spielberg’s most thrilling blockbusters with a dark, genuinely scary atmosphere of ordinary people being wiped out by incomprehensible tragedy.
    — Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Farnaby’s character, a thickly-accented and mostly-incomprehensible farmer, was, of course, called Barry.
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of incomprehensible
Adjective
  • If a machine encounters something unusual or gets stuck, someone monitoring the fleet can briefly intervene until the autonomous system is ready to take back over.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 Sep. 2026
  • The changes occurred amid an unusual rollout of the blog post.
    — Emily Forlini, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of unusual
Adjective
  • The film fails to convey the fearsome, inexplicable beauty that Herzog clearly sees (or perhaps once saw) in this story.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2026
  • What will happen to the stage where Elvis’s swiveling pelvis was kept demurely out of frame, where the Beatles made their American debut, where Jackie Mason may or may not have flipped the bird at the host, where Topo Gigio found inexplicable fame?
    — Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of inexplicable
Adjective
  • But the question remained unsolved for polygons with irrational angles.
    — Sam Macdonald, Scientific American, 14 Aug. 2026
  • As a result, the argument goes, today's spending is irrational because the hardware would need to be replaced too frequently to generate an attractive return on investment, known as ROI.
    — , CNBC, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of irrational
Adjective
  • Even for outdoor enthusiasts, the magnitude of destruction wrought by nature’s fury seemed unfathomable.
    — Holly Yan, CNN Money, 1 Sep. 2026
  • On behalf of myself, our staff, and the Board of Directors, we are entirely devastated by this unfathomable loss to Country Music and the entire world.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of unfathomable
Adjective
  • In a strange quirk of the 2026-27 fixture list, Leeds have been sent to the scenes of those crimes in quick succession once again.
    — Beren Cross, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
  • In short, unruly crowds, strange smells, intrusive noise and late nights are not unique inventions of the TikTok era.
    — Douglas Robson, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of strange
Adjective
  • Assuming viewers understood the history of English soccer — or even the offside rule — could make the broadcasts unintelligible for new fans who understood neither.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Incomplete, corrupted, untimely, or unintelligible Submissions or Submission Forms will be disqualified.
    — August 16, NPR, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of unintelligible

Browse Nearby Words

kaffeeklatsches
Kafkaesque
kahuna
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Cite this Entry

“Kafkaesque.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Kafkaesque. Accessed 8 Sep. 2026.

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