[iro.ny] n, pl -nies [L ironia, fr. Gk eironia, fr. eiron dissembler] (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 esp. the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usu. 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 syn see wit