IRONY


Meaning of IRONY in English

n.

Pronunciation: ' ī -r ə -n ē also ' ī (- ə )r-n ē

Function: noun

Inflected Form: plural -nies

Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eir ō nia, from eir ō 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

Merriam Webster Collegiate English Dictionary.      Merriam Webster - Энциклопедический словарь английского языка.