"rubegoldbergian" meaning in English

See rubegoldbergian in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ɹuːbɡəʊldˈbəːɡɪən/ [UK] Forms: more rubegoldbergian [comparative], most rubegoldbergian [superlative]
Etymology: From Rube Goldberg + -ian. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|Rube Goldberg|ian}} Rube Goldberg + -ian Head templates: {{en-adj}} rubegoldbergian (comparative more rubegoldbergian, superlative most rubegoldbergian)
  1. (Canada, US) Achieving a simple objective by absurdly complicated means; overcomplicated, elaborate and impractical. Tags: Canada, US Synonyms: Heath Robinsonesque, Rube Goldbergian

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for rubegoldbergian meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Rube Goldberg",
        "3": "ian"
      },
      "expansion": "Rube Goldberg + -ian",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Rube Goldberg + -ian.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more rubegoldbergian",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most rubegoldbergian",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "rubegoldbergian (comparative more rubegoldbergian, superlative most rubegoldbergian)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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        {
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ian",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 633",
          "text": "The machinery of government is often rubegoldbergian, with complex arrangements of devolution and special status and power-sharing and affirmative action, and the contraption is held together by a few national symbols such as a rugby team.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Achieving a simple objective by absurdly complicated means; overcomplicated, elaborate and impractical."
      ],
      "id": "en-rubegoldbergian-en-adj-DUVYRoIs",
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "overcomplicated",
          "overcomplicated"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US) Achieving a simple objective by absurdly complicated means; overcomplicated, elaborate and impractical."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Heath Robinsonesque"
        },
        {
          "word": "Rube Goldbergian"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɹuːbɡəʊldˈbəːɡɪən/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "rubegoldbergian"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Rube Goldberg",
        "3": "ian"
      },
      "expansion": "Rube Goldberg + -ian",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Rube Goldberg + -ian.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more rubegoldbergian",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most rubegoldbergian",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "rubegoldbergian (comparative more rubegoldbergian, superlative most rubegoldbergian)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English 4-syllable words",
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms suffixed with -ian",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 633",
          "text": "The machinery of government is often rubegoldbergian, with complex arrangements of devolution and special status and power-sharing and affirmative action, and the contraption is held together by a few national symbols such as a rugby team.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Achieving a simple objective by absurdly complicated means; overcomplicated, elaborate and impractical."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "overcomplicated",
          "overcomplicated"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US) Achieving a simple objective by absurdly complicated means; overcomplicated, elaborate and impractical."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "Heath Robinsonesque"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɹuːbɡəʊldˈbəːɡɪən/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Rube Goldbergian"
    }
  ],
  "word": "rubegoldbergian"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (8203a16 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.