Meaning of IRONIC?

Question

Can somebody please explain to me the meaning of IRONIC? I've already looked it up in the dicitionary so dont give me a dictionary defentition.
In ur own words plz!
Thanks

Answer 1

Happening by the off chance. Just a weird coincidence.
Like it was ironic to see Magenika at camp after she said that she was not a christian.

Answer 2

There are meny different kinds of irony. Verbal irony is when you say the opposite of what you mean, like "What a beautiful day" during a rain storm.

The expression “irony of fate” stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals, with deliberate ironic intent. Closely connected with cosmic irony, it arises from sharp contrasts between reality and human ideals, or between human intentions and actual results. For example:
- The artist Monet's loss of vision
- Ludwig van Beethoven’s loss of hearing.
- The 1956 loss by fire of the top of Harvard’s Memorial Hall tower, while being restored by workmen.
- American astronaut Gus Grissom's death inside Apollo 1 may have been partly because of a spacecraft redesign that he had recommended after the Mercury-Redstone 4 mission. After a Mercury hatch opened prematurely, nearly causing his death, Grissom had recommended the Apollo hatch be made more difficult to open. The new hatch proved too difficult to open.
- Seymour Cray, supercomputer architect, died of head and neck injuries suffered in a traffic collision. His vehicle — a Jeep Cherokee — was designed using a Cray supercomputer.
- Chemist and mechanical engineer Thomas Midgley invented both tetraethyl lead and the chlorofluorocarbon Freon-12 as intended boons to the world. However, both compounds were environmental disasters: the first resulting in widespread lead poisoning, and the second class of compounds in widespread harm to the ozone layer. The contrast between Midgley's intended and actual results remained sharp to the end: at the age of 55, Midgley contracted polio and invented a complicated system of pulleys and ropes to move him in his bed. Although he was an accomplished engineer, this system also badly departed from its ideal task, strangling its inventor to death.

When history is seen through modern eyes, it sometimes happens that there is an especially sharp contrast between the way historical figures see their world and the probable future of their world, and what we now know actually was destined to happen. When the World War which began the 20th century was called The War to End All Wars, this later became an example of historical irony. Historical irony is therefore a subset of cosmic irony, but one in which the element of time is bound up. Examples:
- When the telephone was invented, some people were especially quick to see the possibilties. "Why," said one man, "I can easily see that every town will want one."
By contrast, similar statements were not made about computers, which were initially thought to be devices never capable of use outside a government or academic setting.
Historical irony is often encapsulated into statement:
- "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Nearly the last words of American Civil war General John Sedgewick
- "That's very obvious." last words of American president John F. Kennedy (Spoken in response to Mrs. Connally's comment, "Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you.")

Answer 3

As an "English/Language teacher", I was going to respond - but after I read the wonderful responses from the rest of the Yahoo community - need I say more? I think not. Wonderful answers!

Answer 4

Irony is when something occurs or is said that is the opposite of what is expected or something is the opposite of what it appears to be.

Here are some examples: A scuba diver drowns in a bath tub...an animal rights activitist is mauled to death by an endangered species they helped to preserve...an English teacher hates to read...

Answer 5

The USA is willing to go to war for peace....that is ironic...

And then to complicate it, "If not for the ending of Slavery, Nazism, Communism, and Facism, war is not good for anything....

Answer 6

But Alanis says it so much better:-

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanismorissette/ironic.html

Answer 7

Funny how that fit in
I never tough of it that way
pay back is h^^^^^