|trajə+ noun
Etymology: Middle French tragicomedie, from Old Italian tragicomedia, from Old Spanish, from Latin tragicocomoedia, tragicomoedia, from tragicus tragic + comoedia comedy — more at comedy
1.
a.
(1) : a literary genre consisting of dramas that combine tragic and comic elements with the tragic predominating
Elizabethan tragicomedy is … a subdivision of the larger classification, serious drama — P.W.Barber
(2) : a drama of this genre
b. : the tragicomic quality or element
some of the tragicomedy remains and is the best thing in the film — Time
2. : an event or situation having both serious and comic aspects
the tragicomedy of federal politics