Webster's English Dictionary

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irony

Cross references:
  1. wit                   
 
iro.ny \'i--r*-ne-\ n [L ironia, fr. Gk eiro-nia, fr. eiro-n 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 2a: the use of words to express something other than and esp. 
   the opposite  of the literal meaning 2b: a usu. humorous or sardonic 
   literary style or form characterized by iro ny 2c: an ironic expression or 
   utterance  3a1: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of 
   events and the  normal or expected result 3a2: an event or result marked by 
   such incongruity  3b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama 
   and the accompanyi ng words or actions that is understood by the audience 
   but not by the characters in the play 4: an attitude of detached awareness 
   of incongruity typical of the depictor  or observer of an ironic situation