Irony

Quick meaning: Irony is a noun meaning Socratic irony: ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.

Meaning

Socratic irony: ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.

More Meanings

1. (informal) Contradiction between circumstances and expectations; condition contrary to what might be expected.
2. Of or pertaining to the metal iron.
3. (childish, dated) A kind of metallic marble.
4. Dramatic irony: a theatrical effect in which the meaning of a situation, or some incongruity in the plot, is understood by the audience, but not by the characters in the play.
5. (rhetoric) The quality of a statement that, when taken in context, may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of, what is written literally; the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention, often in a humorous context.

Example Sentences

The food had an irony taste to it.

Irony, saying what it ne'er intends, Censures with praise, and speaks to foes as friends.

A principal virtue of Rorty's recognition of both the lightminded and the serious side of irony is to urge us in that direction.

The scrap yard had bins marked for irony aluminum, such as aluminum engine blocks not wholly cleaned of bolts, studs, brackets, and so on.

Word Forms

• ironies

Synonyms for irony

Depending on context, synonyms include ferric, ferrous, satire, sarcasm.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include satire, sarcasm, paradox, travesty, humor, sarcastic.

Related Dictionary Tools