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reductio ad absurdums

reductio ad absurdums is the plural of reductio ad absurdum.

Meaning of reductio ad absurdum

Noun

reductio ad absurdum (usually uncountable, plural reductio ad absurdums)

  1. (usually) The method of disproving a statement by assuming the statement is true and, with that assumption, arriving at a blatant contradiction.
    • “You, gentlemen, as representatives of that institution which recognizes only truths that are deduced from reductio ad absurdums will probably have no difficulty in perceiving the truth of this absurdity and hence be ready to excuse the outcome of it—my absence.”1894, Flora Helm, “Concerns a Talk in Which Anarchy and Love Are Blended”, in Between Two Forces: A Record of a Theory and a Passion, Boston, Mass.: Arena Publishing Company. […], pages 149–150

Questions about reductio ad absurdums

What is reductio ad absurdums the plural of?
Reductio ad absurdums is the plural of reductio ad absurdum.

Words near reductio ad absurdums in the dictionary

  1. reducted
  2. reductibilities
  3. reductibility
  4. reducting
  5. reductio ad absurdum
  6. reductio ad absurdums
  7. reductio ad Hitlerum
  8. reductio ad Hitlerums
  9. reductio ad Stalinum
  10. reduction
  11. reduction division

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reductio ad absurdums (page history and authors); reductio ad absurdum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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