Link Centre Dictionary

irony

UK/ˈaɪə.ni/ US/ˈaɪ.ɚ.ni/ fairly common informal

noun

1.

witty language used to convey insults or scorn

  • “he used sarcasm to upset his opponent”
  • “irony is wasted on the stupid”
  • “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody”
Synonyms
2.

incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

  • “the irony of Ireland”
3.

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

Origin

From Middle French ironie, from Old French, from Latin īrōnīa, from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία (eirōneía, “irony, pretext”), from εἴρων (eírōn, “one who feigns ignorance”).

Phrases

  • cosmic irony
  • dramatic irony
  • irony mark
  • situational irony
  • Socratic irony

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.