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| a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, powerful high explosive, C3H6N6O6, used chiefly in bombs and shells. |
| the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language). |
reductio ad absurdum
(Latin: "reduction to absurdity"), in logic, a form of refutation showing contradictory or absurd consequences following upon premises as a matter of logical necessity. A form of the reductio ad absurdum argument, known as indirect proof or reductio ad impossibile, is one that proves a proposition by showing that its denial conjoined with other propositions previously proved or accepted leads to a contradiction. In common speech the term reductio ad absurdum refers to anything pushed to absurd extremes.
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