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