The ridiculous or the nonsensical is worthy only to be laughed at. The lunatic's claim to be a king is ridiculous; the Mother Goose rimes are nonsensical.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

silly Tom gets confused and says silly things sometimes.
absurd Do you really not see how absurd your question is?
ludicrous Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
laughable From the sublime to the laughable is just one step.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
ridiculous		rising
silly		rising
absurd		steady
ludicrous		steady
laughable		rising
antic		falling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: odd¹
4 letters: dumb¹
5 letters: funny², silly², goofy², antic²
6 letters: stupid², absurd²
7 letters: foolish², amusing³, idiotic⁴, comical³, risible
8 letters: humorous³, farcical³
9 letters: ludicrous³, grotesque², laughable³, frivolous³, humourous
11 letters: nonsensical⁴, incongruous⁴
12 letters: unreasonable⁴, preposterous⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (funny² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: ridicule
Italiano: ridicolo
Español: ridículo
Deutsch: lächerlich