Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have used nonsense in their works, often creating entire works using it for reasons ranging from pure comic amusement or satire, to illustrating a point about language or reasoning. In the philosophy of language and philosophy of science, nonsense is distinguished from sense or meaningfulness, and attempts have been made to come up with a coherent and consistent method of distinguishing sense from nonsense. It is also an important field of study in cryptography regarding separating a signal from noise.
Read more about Nonsense: Literary Nonsense, Philosophy of Language and Of Science, Cryptography, Teaching Machines To Talk Nonsense
Famous quotes containing the word nonsense:
“There is no subject on which more dangerous nonsense is talked and thought than marriage.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The cot we shared is almost a prison
where I can’t say buttercup, bobolink,
sugarduck, pumpkin, love ribbon, locket,
valentine, summergirl, funnygirl and all
those nonsense things one says in bed.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The nonsense that charms is close to sense.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)