IRONY
Dictionary entry overview: What does irony mean?
• IRONY (noun)
The noun IRONY has 3 senses:
1. witty language used to convey insults or scorn
2. incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
3. a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs
Familiarity information: IRONY used as a noun is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
• IRONY (noun)
Meaning:
Witty language used to convey insults or scorn
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
caustic remark; irony; sarcasm; satire
Context examples:
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's face but their own
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)
Meaning:
Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Context example:
the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated
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)
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; meriting; worth (having sufficient worth)
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)
