Adjacent Words

Irony definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

I'RONY, a. [from iron.] Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; as irony chains; irony particles.
1. Resembling iron; hard.
I'RONY, [L. ironia; Gr. a dissembler in speech.]
A mode of speech expressing a sense contrary to that which the speaker intends to convey; as, Nero was a very virtuous prince; Pope Hildebrand was remarkable for his meekness and humility. when irony is uttered,the dissimulation is generally apparent from the manner of speaking, as by a smile or an arch look, or perhaps by an affected gravity of countenance. Irony in writing may also be detected by the manner of expression.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
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's face but their own"-- Jonathan Swift [syn: sarcasm, irony, satire, caustic remark]
2: incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs; "the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated"
3: a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -nies) Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eir?nia, from eir?n dissembler Date: 1502 1. a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning — called also Socratic irony 2. a. the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b. a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c. an ironic expression or utterance 3. a. (1) incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) an event or result marked by such incongruity b. incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play — called also dramatic irony, tragic irony Synonyms: see wit

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. (pl. -ies) 1 an expression of meaning, often humorous or sarcastic, by the use of language of a different or opposite tendency. 2 an ill-timed or perverse arrival of an event or circumstance that is in itself desirable. 3 the use of language with one meaning for a privileged audience and another for those addressed or concerned. Etymology: L ironia f. Gk eironeia simulated ignorance f. eiron dissembler 2. adj. of or like iron.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Irony I"ron*y, a. [From Iron.] 1. Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles. [R.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Irony I"ron*y, n.[L. ironia, Gr. ? dissimulation, fr. ? a dissembler in speech, fr. ? to speak; perh. akin to E. word: cf. F. ironie.] 1. Dissimulation; ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist. 2. A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(ironies) 1. Irony is a subtle form of humour which involves saying things that you do not mean. Sinclair examined the closed, clever face for any hint of irony, but found none. 2. If you talk about the irony of a situation, you mean that it is odd or amusing because it involves a contrast. The irony is that many officials in Washington agree in private that their policy is inconsistent... N-VAR: oft N of/in n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Mockery (saying one thing and meaning the opposite).

Moby Thesaurus

Atticism, Janus, agile wit, ambiguity, ambiguousness, ambivalence, amphibology, antinomy, biformity, bifurcation, black humor, burlesque, caricature, causticity, comedy, complexity of meaning, conjugation, cynicism, dichotomy, double entendre, double meaning, double reference, doubleness, doublethink, doubling, dry wit, dualism, duality, duplexity, duplication, duplicity, equivocacy, equivocality, equivocalness, equivocation, esprit, farce, halving, humor, innuendo, invective, lampoon, levels of meaning, multivocality, nimble wit, oxymoron, pairing, paradox, parody, paronomasia, pleasantry, polarity, polysemousness, polysemy, pretty wit, punning, quick wit, ready wit, richness of meaning, salt, sarcasm, satire, satiric wit, savor of wit, self-contradiction, slapstick, slapstick humor, squib, subtle wit, travesty, twinning, two-facedness, twoness, uncertainty, visual humor, wit