That's Ironic, or maybe not...

As demonstrated in my post "Smart Insults", many English speakers use words interchangeably without knowing their exact meaning.  Below are more that commonly trip up the masses.


Irony— the use of words to convey meaning opposite of what is said, an outcome contrary to expectations, incongruity, objectively sardonic style

Sardonic— bitter or scornfully derisive, mocking, cynical, sneering

Satire— the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule in exposing, denouncing, deriding vice, folly

Sarcasm— harsh or bitter derision or irony, sharply ironical taunt, sneering or cutting remark

All are indicative of mockery. Irony is more indirect, subtler, wittier.  Sarcasm is used to show contempt or be destructive, either indirectly or directly.  Sarcasm is distinguishable by vocal inflection used.  Satire and irony rely on the organization or structure of language or literature. Satire makes use of irony and sarcasm to critique public figures, politics, governments, etc.

The most typical problem people run into, however, is the difference between irony and coincidence.

Dramatic irony— irony inherent in speeches or situations of a drama understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters; dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an incongruity between speeches and situation while characters remain unaware.

Literary irony works much the same way.  As 'all the world's a stage', it is unsurprising that irony of situation came to exist alongside irony in speech. But it poses a dilemma.  Far down the list of definitions of irony is: an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.   Which sounds like it could be a coincidence.

Coincidence— a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by chance.

So, if two things coincide unexpectedly it is a coincidence.  If their coinciding goes against expectations, it is both irony and coincidence. If chance is ruled out as being a factor, it is simply ironic.

*FDD: Satire, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein w are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave, and his every victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.