| Learning / English Dictionary |
IRONY
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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)
