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ばかばかしい (bakabakashii) Japanese meaning: absurd | Kotomora
JLPT N2 › Freq. Frequency Top 20,000 Conjugation ばかばかしい · i-adjective
Form Positive Negative Dictionary ばかばかしい ばかばかしくない Polite ばかばかしいです ばかばかしくないです also ばかばかしくありません Past polite ばかばかしかったです ばかばかしくなかったです also ばかばかしくありませんでした Past ばかばかしかった ばかばかしくなかった Te-form ばかばかしくて ばかばかしくなくて Adverbial ばかばかしく Conditional ばかばかしければ ばかばかしくなければ Tara conditional ばかばかしかったら ばかばかしくなかったら
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That story is so ridiculous I can't listen to it.
It's absurd to fail at something this simple.
Usage patterns 〈 事こと 〉 が 馬ば 鹿か 馬ば 鹿か しい for something (a situation, idea, story) to be absurd/ridiculous
I think that made-up story is ridiculous.
馬ば 鹿か 馬ば 鹿か しいほど 〜 to an absurd/ridiculous degree
It took an absurdly long time.
馬ば 鹿か 馬ば 鹿か しくて 〜 so ridiculous that (one reacts a certain way)
The story was so absurd that I ended up laughing.
Kanji 莫 must not, do not, be not Related words 馬鹿らしい and 馬鹿馬鹿しい both mean 'absurd/silly', but 馬鹿馬鹿しい is the stronger, more emphatic version expressing greater exasperation.
馬鹿げる is the verb form meaning 'to be absurd' (as in 馬鹿げた話), while 馬鹿馬鹿しい is the adjective directly describing something as absurd.
くだらない means 'worthless/trivial' and focuses on something not being worth one's attention, whereas 馬鹿馬鹿しい stresses that something is laughably foolish.
滑稽 describes something comical or funny in a lighter, more neutral way, while 馬鹿馬鹿しい carries a stronger sense of contemptuous disbelief at the foolishness.
馬鹿馬鹿しい is a native i-adjective meaning 'ridiculous' with a stronger emotional charge, while ナンセンス is a calmer, more intellectual way to call an idea absurd.
Written forms ばかばかしい Usage 46%
Usually written in kana; the kanji forms are rare or search-only.
バカバカしい Usage 25%
kana-only spelling
Katakana spelling, sometimes used for emphasis or in informal writing.
馬ば 鹿か 馬ば 鹿か しい Usage 24%
Kanji spelling; rarely used in practice.
馬ば 鹿か ばかしい
Etymology Derived from 馬鹿 (ばか, 'fool') reduplicated with the adjective-forming suffix しい, literally 'fool-fool-ish'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it follows a common pattern for emphatic adjectives.
Usage 4%
