Kafkaesque

English

Etymology

From Kafka +‎ -esque, after writer Franz Kafka.

Adjective

Kafkaesque (comparative more Kafkaesque, superlative most Kafkaesque)

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

   Kafkaesque bureaucracies

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

Related terms

• Kafkaian
• Kafkian

Translations

marked by menacing complexity

• Arabic: درامى (ar)
• Catalan: kafkià (ca) m, kafkiana (ca) f
• Czech: kafkovský (cs)
• Dutch: kafkaësk (nl)
• Finnish: kafkamainen (fi)
• French: kafkaïen (fr)
• German: kafkaesk (de)
• Hebrew: קפקאי (he) (kafka'i)
• Italian: kafkiano (it)

• Japanese: カフカ的 (ja) (Kafukateki)
• Lithuanian: kafkiškas (lt)
• Polish: kafkowski (pl) m
• Portuguese: kafkiano (pt)
• Russian: кафкианский (ru) (kafkiánskij)
• Serbo-Croatian: kafkijanski (sh)
• Spanish: kafkiano (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Estonian: kafkalik

• Swedish: kafkaartad