irony

Pluralironies

1. 1
   opposite meaningnounrhetoriccountable or uncountable

   The quality of a statement that, in context, means something different from, or the opposite of, its literal sense; the use of words to express something other than their literal intent, often humorously.

   Like a wink accompanying a compliment: the surface message is delivered, but the real one travels underneath.

   Critics praised the essay's gentle irony, which mocks the author's own pretensions as much as anyone else's.

   When she calls her cramped studio 'the palace,' the irony is impossible to miss.

   Similarsarcasm, satire, mockery, wryness

   Oppositesincerity, earnestness

   Note

   A rhetorician's term with a Greek character behind it: eirōneia comes from eirōn, "one who feigns ignorance," and it reached English through Latin and French by 1502. L. Langley's 1835 Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric put the device into a couplet: irony "censures with praise, and speaks to foes as friends." Rhetoricians call it verbal irony to keep it apart from the playwright's kind and irony of circumstance.

2. 2
   unexpected outcomenouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   The quality of a situation in which what actually happens clashes with what was expected.

   The irony of a security firm getting robbed was lost on no one.

   With grim irony, the drought ended the same week the town finished its emergency reservoir.

   Similarparadox, incongruity, contradiction

3. 3
   opposite meaningnounrhetoriccountable

   A statement that, in context, means something other than, often the opposite of, what it literally says.

   'Lovely,' she said, an irony nobody in the room missed.

   His farewell speech was packed with small ironies aimed at the committee.

   Note

   The countable use takes a plural and a counting word: an irony, two ironies, the second irony. Journalists favor a fixed frame, as in Kenan Malik's 2013 essay "London Is Special, but Not That Special": "it is one of the ironies of capital cities that…" In that frame the thing counted is less a remark than an ironic fact, which edges toward irony of circumstance.

4. 4
   audience knowsnouncountable or uncountable

   A theatrical effect, often called dramatic irony, in which the audience understands the real meaning of a situation, or some incongruity in the plot, that the characters themselves do not.

   Much of the thriller's irony comes from viewers knowing the detective's partner is the killer.

   The play builds its irony slowly, letting the audience learn of the shipwreck two acts before the heroine does.

   Note

   The full name, dramatic irony, is the safer one to use, because the bare word could just as easily mean the figure of speech. The effect depends on the gap between audience and character. A line spoken innocently lands as a warning on those who know more. It works the same way in a thriller on screen as it does on a stage.

5. 5
   feigned ignorancenouncountable or uncountable

   Ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist, traditionally called Socratic irony.

   With studied irony, the lawyer professed confusion until the witness contradicted his earlier testimony.

   Her irony in seminar was famous: she would claim ignorance of a theory until students defended it precisely.

   Similardissimulation, pretense

   Note

   Of all the senses, this one sits closest to the Greek root. An eirōn was "one who feigns ignorance," which is exactly the posture named here, and its usual label, Socratic irony, ties the tactic to Socrates. Unlike the figure of speech, it is a stance held through a whole exchange rather than a single turned phrase: the speaker pretends not to know and lets the other side expose itself.

6. 6
   like ironadjective

   Of or relating to the metal iron, as in the taste, smell, or appearance that iron gives a substance.

   Decades of rust gave the cellar an irony smell that never aired out.

   The well water had a faintly irony tang that the new filter never quite removed.

   Similarmetallic, rusty, ferrous

   Note

   This is a separate word that happens to share the spelling. It is iron plus -y, going back to Middle English hyrony and yrony. It nearly always stands before a noun of the senses, as in an irony taste or an irony appearance. It turns up in practical writing about water, ore and scrap metal. The New Hampshire State Department of Health's 1916 report notes a "slight irony taste." Context alone tells it apart from the figure of speech.

Showing meanings only. Show all 7