irony
/ˈaɪ.ɹə.ni/ noun C1- 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.
- An ironic statement.
- 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.
- Socratic irony: ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.
- Contradiction between circumstances and expectations; condition contrary to what might be expected.
Plural ironies
From the library
Finally he took refuge in a somewhat acrid irony.
“A song and dance!” she said, in a deliberate sweet voice that seemed to clothe her words in a diaphanous garment of impalpable irony.
“And what would you do, my dear diplomatist,” replied Morcerf, with a slight degree of irony in his voice, “if you did nothing?
It would have required the penetration of Œdipus or the Sphinx to have divined the irony the count concealed beneath these words, apparently uttered with the greatest politeness.
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