what is the definition of Irony?

Question

irony is a figure of speech

Answer 1

Irony is a difficult word to explain. Think this way:

"Dude, we don't need guns"

*Burns guns in fire*

*Just then millions of aliens come at them and they are defenseless*

Irony.

Answer 2

Definition Of Irony

Answer 3

Irony is best known as a figure of speech (more precisely called verbal irony) in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is understood. It can also be considered a twist of fate where an eventual event relates back to a particular quote. All the different senses of irony, however, revolve around the notion of incongruity, or a gap between our understanding and what actually happens. For instance, tragic irony occurs when a character onstage is ignorant, but the audience watching knows his or her eventual fate, as in Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King. Socratic irony, the oldest form, takes place when someone pretends to be foolish or ignorant, but is not. Cosmic irony is a sharp incongruity between our expectations of things and what actually occurs, as if the universe were mocking us.

H. W. Fowler, in Modern English Usage, had this to say of irony:

Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware, both of that “more” and of the outsider’s incomprehension.
Irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker’s perception of paradox. In June 2005, the State of Virginia Employment Agency, which handles unemployment compensation, announced that they would lay off 400 employees for lack of work, because unemployment is so low in the state. The reader’s perception of a disconnection between common expectation, and the application of logic with an unexpected outcome, both has an element of irony in it and shows the connection between irony and humor, when the surprise startles us into laughter. Not all irony is humorous: “grim irony” and “stark irony” are familiar.

Answer 4

Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirOnia, from eirOn dissembler
1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning -- called also Socratic irony
2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

Answer 5

irony

SYLLABICATION: i·ro·ny
PRONUNCIATION: r-n, r-
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. i·ro·nies
1a. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. b. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. c. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See synonyms at wit1. 2a. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain). b. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity. See Usage Note at ironic. 3. Dramatic irony. 4. Socratic irony.
ETYMOLOGY: French ironie, from Old French, from Latin rna, from Greek eirneia, feigned ignorance, from eirn, dissembler, probably from eirein, to say. See wer-5 in Appendix I

Answer 6

Irony: (n): wry depiction

Synonym: satire

Also: (n): a paradoxical state of affairs

Synonyms: paradox, and incongruity

Answer 7

example: I'm irony my shirt. tehheee

Answer 8

an evevt or resukt of what was expectted i.e. the firehouse burned down