irony

Noun
US[ahy-ruh-nee]/ˈaɪrəni/3 syllables

Open English WordNet

Noun (3)

  1. witty language used to convey insults or scorn“he used sarcasm to upset his opponent”“irony is wasted on the stupid”“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own — Jonathan Swift”Synonyms: sarcasmsatirecaustic remarkType of wit, humorAttribute of sarcastic, unsarcastic
  2. incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs“the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated”Type of incongruity, incongruousnessKinds Socratic irony
  3. a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occursType of trope, figure of speechKinds dramatic ironyParts antiphrasis
Word of the day · Oct 23About this word
ironynoun

You are looking at today’s word. Test yourself with the rest of today’s quiz.

Advertisement

Translations

Noun irony, saying the opposite of what is meant

Spanish
ironía
French
ironie
German
Ironie
Italian
ironia
Portuguese
ironia
Turkish
ironi
Russian
иро́ния irónija
Arabic
سُخْرِيَة suḵriya
Chinese
反话 fǎnhuà
Japanese
皮肉 hiniku
23 more languages
Dutch
ironie
Polish
ironia
Swedish
ironi
Greek
ειρωνεία eironeía
Korean
반어 baneo
Indonesian
ironi
Hungarian
irónia
Portuguese (PT)
ironia
Chinese (Trad.)
反話 fǎnhuà
Albanian
ironi
Catalan
ironia
Czech
ironie
Danish
ironi
Esperanto
ironio
Estonian
iroonia
Finnish
ironia
Georgian
ირონია ironia
Icelandic
írónía
Norwegian
ironi
Romanian
ironie
Serbo-Croatian
ironija
Slovak
irónia
Slovenian
ironija

The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

I′ron·y adjective

Origin: From Iron.

1. Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles; — In this sense iron is the more common term. rare John Woodward

2. Resembling iron in taste, hardness, or other physical property.


I′ron·y noun

Origin: L. ironia, Gr. … dissimulation, fr. … a dissembler in speech, fr. … to speak; perh. akin to E. word: cf. F. ironie.

1. Dissimulation; ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.

2. A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: +PJC

Advertisement