adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.

   "Kafkaesque bureaucracies"

2. 2
   Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of looming danger.
3. 3
   In the manner of something written by Franz Kafka.

Adjective

1. 1
   characterized by surreal distortion and a sense of impending danger wordnet
2. 2
   relating to or in the manner of Franz Kafka or his writings wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

kafkaishunrealistic

Example

More examples

"Tom found himself in a Kafkaesque situation."

Etymology

From Kafka + -esque, after writer Franz Kafka. Piecewise doublet of Kafkaish.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.