The irony of it is that the new tax system will burden those it was intended to help. With inevitable irony, it was Smith who scored the winning goal against his former team.
The final irony of the situation was that Collins himself ordered the assassination. The irony is that the formula turned out to have been incorrect all along. He noted the irony that the weapons were now being used against the country that produced them.
The irony is that his mistake will actually improve the team's situation. Outcomes and consequences. C2 the use of words that are the opposite of what you mean , as a way of being funny :. Her voice heavy with irony, Simone said, "We're so pleased you were able to stay so long. Compare sarcasm. Figurative use of language. Irony is also something that has a different or opposite result from what is expected :.
Examples of irony. But the cockiness of our armchair supremacy has given rise to an ugly, potentially lethal epidemic of irony. From Wired. That you needed to be, maybe, in your mids to get the irony and humor of it. From The Atlantic. Leaving aside the irony of discussing the vitality of newspapers in a series of tweets, though, he delivers a familiar criticism. From The Plain Dealer - cleveland. And so there are a number of complicated ironies about this.
From NPR. But exactly how does irony differ from related concepts like coincidence, paradox, satire, and parody? Things happen all the time, and sometimes things happen at the same time.
But does that make such juxtapositions ironic? And does it truly matter what we call them? Referring to coincidences as ironic raises the hackles of prescriptivists, who regard such usage with clear distaste. For them, it represents a form of imprecision that debases the language — an unforced error that one should scrupulously avoid.
From a family resemblance perspective, we might say that the concept of coincidence overlaps to some degree with the irony concept, but the number of attributes the two share is low. Coincidences may involve victims, humor, or criticism, but they are rarely truly humorous or poignant. In short, the family resemblance between coincidence and irony makes them more like cousins than siblings.
The battle over equating irony and coincidence has been raging for some time. Not every coincidence, curiosity, oddity and paradox is an irony, even loosely.
Equating irony with coincidence is still viewed — at least in some quarters — as a semantic transgression, although attitudes appear to be softening. Other disapproving voices have weighed in on this issue. Resistance to such uses remain strong. The panel has been asked repeatedly to weigh in on the acceptability of a sentence that describes a woman from Ithaca, New York, who moves to California, where she meets and marries a man who is also from upstate New York.
In , 78 percent of the panel rejected this usage. A survey from that contained the same sentence was deemed problematic by 63 percent of the panel, a figure that is lower than the earlier one but still a majority.
Clearly, equating irony with coincidence is still viewed — at least in some quarters — as a semantic transgression, although attitudes appear to be softening. He is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence.
But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony. Other examples, however, appear to be more straightforward. Henry tells the story of Jim and Della, a young couple seeking the perfect Christmas presents for each other spoiler alert! Both of them sacrifice prized possessions to be able to afford their gifts.
Della has her lustrous tresses shorn so that she can afford a platinum pocket watch fob for Jim. Jim sells his pocket watch to buy ornamental combs for Della. Their actions thus destroy the value of the gifts that they exchange. The story is best described in terms of situational irony, with a dash of dramatic irony as well, since the reader is aware of the poignant outcome before Jim and Della meet to celebrate Christmas.
It is worth asking oneself, before describing such occurrences, whether a juxtaposition is mundane that is, coincidental or more surprising, consequential, or significant — and therefore ironic. Both situational irony and coincidence are used to refer to states of affairs that may be difficult to classify as clearly belonging to one concept or the other. The most we can say is that some people care about the distinction a great deal, and it is worth asking oneself, before describing such occurrences, whether a juxtaposition is mundane that is, coincidental or more surprising, consequential, or significant — and therefore ironic.
As with coincidence, irony is often conflated with the concept of paradox. Once again, the two concepts overlap to a certain degree, since both irony and paradox can involve juxtaposition, sometimes jarring incongruity, and deviation from expectations. Paradox, however, goes a step further and entails self-contradiction as an essential element.
Example: In Roald Dahl's short story "A Lamb to the Slaughter ," a betrayed housewife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. When the cops arrive, she cooks the lamb and feeds it to them, effectively making the police dispose of the evidence. Ironic, wouldn't you say? Steering readers to an unexpected destination in a story can emphasize a moral lesson — often reminding readers that an expected outcome is not always guaranteed.
For this reason, authors often deploy situational irony in fables or morality tales. Example: In Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare," the unexpected outcome teaches us that slow and steady wins the race. Or, if you ask us, the real moral is that you shouldn't be complacent and take naps during races. You can also see this type of irony at play in Greek tragedies where the tragic hero is punished for their acts of hubris excessive pride — which was apparently the gravest sin in ancient Greece.
Example: In Oedipus Rex , the title character is, unbeknownst to him, a foundling adopted by King Polybus. As an adult, Oedipus seeks out the Oracle at Delphi, who deals a prophecy: he will mate with his mother and kill his father. In an attempt to circumvent this prophecy, Oedipus leaves home, thereby setting himself on the road to killing a man who he later discovers is his father and marrying the Queen of Thebes actually his mother. By defying the will of the gods, he has dealt himself a fate dripping with irony.
Verbal irony is where the intended meaning of a statement is the opposite of what is said. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony, but it's almost always used to denigrate someone or something. There are common phrases that perfectly exemplify verbal irony — many of them similes comparing two entirely unlike things. Broadly speaking, verbal irony works by either understating or overstating the gravity of the situation.
As you might expect, an ironic understatement creates contrast by undermining the impact of something, though the thing itself will be rather substantial or severe. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. On the other hand, ironic overstatement makes something minor sound like a much bigger deal to emphasize how minor it is.
A friend asks you if you won anything, and you say, "Yeah, total jackpot" — that's an ironic overstatement. Note: this is not to be confused with hyperbole, in which the overstatement isn't ironic, but stems from wanting to convey just how massive something is — even if it isn't that big.
Now that we know the two faces of verbal irony, that leaves the question: what effect does it have on a piece of writing? Verbal irony is often used for satirical purposes, exaggerating or underplaying their descriptions to reveal a deeper truth. Viewed through a lens of overstatement or understatement, the reader can see how flawed the original concept might be. Example: Verbal irony can be found in the very first lines of Romeo and Juliet a play riddled with irony.
Instead, these lines imply that both households are equally undignified. This irony also serves another purpose: notifying first-time readers that not all that glitters is gold. While both families might technically be considered nobility, their shared inability to act nobly toward one another ultimately leads to a bitter end for our tragic heroes.
Dialogue is an incredible tool for revealing what a character is like — and how they choose to say something will often speak volumes about who they are. See synonyms for irony on Thesaurus.
Socratic irony. We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.
Irony, sarcasm, satire indicate mockery of something or someone. The essential feature of irony is the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs. Ironic literature exploits, in addition to the rhetorical figure, such devices as character development, situation, and plot to stress the paradoxical nature of reality or the contrast between an ideal and actual condition, set of circumstances, etc.
Irony differs from sarcasm in greater subtlety and wit. In sarcasm ridicule or mockery is used harshly, often crudely and contemptuously, for destructive purposes.
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