Kafkaesque

[ kahf-kuh-esk ]

adjective

1. relating to, characteristic of, or resembling the literary work of Franz Kafka; marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies.

   the Kafkaesque terror of the endless interrogations;

   Kafkaesque bureaucracies.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Kafkaesque¹

First recorded in 1945–50; Kafka + -esque

Example Sentences

Political pressure, economic resources and the ability to navigate into a Kafkaesque bureaucracy play a determinant role.

From The Daily Beast

He emerges from the horrors with a Kafkaesque account of life in the Chinese jails.

From The Daily Beast

Frederick Deknatel on the vulgar Kafkaesque genius of Sonallah Ibrahim.

From The Daily Beast

David Choe must have had a Kafkaesque morning, waking up to find himself changed in his bed into a monstrous millionaire.

From The Daily Beast

Yet if his lonely experience in prison could be called Kafkaesque, then so too could his life before he was sentenced.

From The Daily Beast

It is a Kafkaesque, sealed universe in which nothing is, as it appears to be.

From Project Gutenberg