/ English Dictionary

IRONY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

Example:

the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("irony" is a kind of...):

incongruity; incongruousness (the quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "irony"):

Socratic irony (admission of your own ignorance and willingness to learn while exposing someone's inconsistencies by close questioning)

Derivation:

ironic; ironical (characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Witty language used to convey insults or scorn

Example:

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own

Synonyms:

caustic remark; irony; sarcasm; satire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("irony" is a kind of...):

humor; humour; wit; witticism; wittiness (a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter)

Attribute:

sarcastic (expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds)

unsarcastic (not sarcastic)

Derivation:

ironic; ironical (humorously sarcastic or mocking)

ironist (a humorist who uses ridicule and irony and sarcasm)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("irony" is a kind of...):

figure; figure of speech; image; trope (language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense)

Meronyms (parts of "irony"):

antiphrasis (the use of a word in a sense opposite to its normal sense (especially in irony))

Domain member usage:

pretty ((used ironically) unexpectedly bad)

deserving; worth ((often used ironically) worthy of being treated in a particular way)

indeed ((used as an interjection) an expression of surprise or skepticism or irony etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "irony"):

dramatic irony ((theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play)

Derivation:

ironic; ironical (characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is)

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