irony

(noun)

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, notably as a form of humor.

Related Terms

Examples of irony in the following topics:

  • Using Humor

    • Two common rhetorical devices used to convey special meaning to an audience are irony and metaphor.
    • The use of irony in rhetoric is primarily to convey an incongruity, often used in humor to deprecate or ridicule an idea or course of action.

  • Using Satire to Summarize

    • One popular rhetorical device is irony, or language that signals a meaning that opposes its own literal meaning, often through tone or context.

  • It's not just big business

    • The irony is that environmental groups have been lobbying for such changes for years yet their efforts obtained fruition only after the local business community jumped on board.

  • Introduction to Sustainability as an Objective

    • Yet too many business schools (and businesses) fail to see a similar sense of irony when they announce that they're ‘going green' – with the result that their efforts end up looking like nothing more than a misplaced marketing exercise.

  • Quotation Marks

    • Quotation marks can also be used to highlight specific words, express the title of a short literary work, or to emphasize irony.
    • Quotes indicating verbal irony or another special use are sometimes called scare quotes.

  • Pop Art

    • Lichtenstein's contribution to Pop Art merged popular and mass culture with the techniques of fine art, while injecting humor, irony, and recognizable imagery and content into the final product.
    • Warhol attempted to take Pop beyond an artistic style to a life style, and his work often displays a lack of human affectation that dispenses with the irony and parody of many of his peers.

  • The illusion of control

    • Although research shows that satisfying the human need for control can create a powerful sense of purpose and direction, the irony is that too much control can generate problems.

  • Additional examples

    • The irony is that although California's energy prices are the highest in the United States, its citizens pay the country's lowest energy bills thanks to increasing laws like these that outlaw inefficiencies.

  • Literature and the Depression

    • The second, The Day of the Locust , introduces a cast of Hollywood stereotypes and explores the ironies of the movies.

  • Contemporary Art

    • Postmodern art comes from the viewpoint that all stances are unstable and insincere, and therefore irony, parody, and humor are the only positions which cannot be overturned by critique or later events.