Sample Sentences forironygrouped by contextual meaning (editor-reviewed)
irony as in: situational irony
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She didn't see the irony in acting like the mother she detested.
irony = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
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Ironically, her strongest supporters undermined her popularity through their extremism.
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His name was Wolfe. Wolfe! And the irony of it was that he was as gentle as a lamb. (source)irony = when things are together that seem like they don't belong together
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McCandless's apparent salvation, in other words, seemed to be only a three-hour walk upriver. This sad irony was widely noted in the aftermath of his death. (source)irony = knowledge that what happened was very different that what might have been expected
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[in response to Mrs. van Daan describing herself as "extremely modest and retiring"] As luck would have it, the moment Mrs. van D. turned around I was shaking my head in a combination of compassion and irony. (source)irony = when what happened was very different than what might have been expected
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That's ironic coming from a woman helping to prepare us for slaughter. (source)ironic = when what happens is very different than what might be expected; or when things are together that seem like they don't belong together
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"What happened?" Momma asks. "Keep your damn voice down!" Ironically, she's not keeping hers down. (source)Ironically = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
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...and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. (source)ironical = when what is happens is very different than what might be expected
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here was one of life's giant ironies, (source)ironies = things that are very different than what might be expected
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"That's the irony." (source)irony = when what happens is very different than what might be expected; or when things are together that seem like they don't belong together
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"When you're mm-m-m ironic, that ah-h-h suggests you're hm-m-m-m thinking deep thoughts," the Count said. (source)ironic = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
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Hans was sent first, quite ironically, to Stuttgart, and later, to Essen. (source)
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...rather ironical ... sitting at my own desk in my own home with nothing better to do than to write a letter to ... a woman I disliked... (source)
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[his legs] he could still feel pain, even though he could not move them, another one of ALS's cruel little ironies. (source)ironies = things that wouldn't be expected together
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irony as in: verbal irony
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She was being ironic when she said she couldn't wait to see you again.
ironic = saying one thing, while meaning the opposite
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Her voice was dripping with irony as she said, "You look beautiful."
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Paul saw that the man was enjoying the stink of this air, that there was no irony in his tone. (source)irony = saying one thing while meaning something else
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Helene says this without a trace of irony, and I wince at the sheer idiocy of the idea. (source)
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"Yes," he said sincerely—vigorous nod, no irony, wiping his nose with the side of his hand. (source)irony = saying one thing while meaning something else
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Madge shoots him a look, trying to see if it's a genuine compliment or if he's just being ironic. (source)ironic = saying one thing while meaning the opposite
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"Whose fault is that?" said Lheureux, bowing ironically. (source)ironically = saying one thing, while meaning the opposite
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"The Corporation has been assured that the colonists are volunteers." It seemed to Rod that the announcer's tone was ironical. "This is understandable when one considers the phenomenal population pressure..." (source)ironical = saying one thing while meaning something else
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"Together with you," she said, letting just the edge of the irony of it touch her voice. (source)irony = saying one thing while meaning the opposite
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NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED, the voice had said, followed by silence. There was an ironic tone to that final message, as if the Speaker found it amusing; and Jonas had smiled a little, though he knew what a grim statement it had been. For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure. (source)ironic = saying one thing while meaning another
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The Father. ...I did it so that he should grow up healthy and strong... The Step-Daughter [pointing to him ironically]. As one can see. (source)ironically = saying one thing, while meaning the opposite
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...he almost never addressed his daughter save in the ironical form. (source)ironical = saying one thing while meaning something else
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"You're too kind to us ... If you keep coddling us like this we'll think you like us." Some of the others laughed into their microphones. Ender recognized the irony, of course, and answered with a long silence. When he finally spoke, he ignored Alai's complaint. "Again," he said, "and this time without self-pity." (source)irony = saying one thing while meaning the opposite
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"There isn't any war." It was one of the few ironic remarks Phineas ever made, and with it he quietly brought to a close all his special inventions which had carried us through the winter. (source)
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irony as in: dramatic irony
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The scene is filled with dramatic irony since the audience, unlike Romeo, knows that Juliet is not really dead.
dramatic irony = when the audience understands something not known to a character
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The dramatic irony builds as we wait for her to realize he has betrayed her.
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We are only hapless victims of that irony. (source)irony = when the meaning of a situation is understood by one person, but not by another
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There is a type of situation, which occurs all too often and which is occurring at this point in the story of the Baudelaire orphans, called "dramatic irony." (source)
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Well, I'm in the library parsing a Jane Austen novel looking for dramatic irony, while many of my old friends are dead or in jail. (source)dramatic irony = when the meaning of a situation is understood by one person, but not by another
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But we do; irony works because the audience understands something that eludes one or more of the characters. (source)
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First, the entire play exists in what the late literary theorist Northrop Frye calls the "ironic mode." (source)ironic = with characters who know less or have a lower degree of autonomy than ourselves
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Simply put, dramatic irony is when a person makes a harmless remark, and someone else who hears it knows something that makes the remark have a different, and usually unpleasant, meaning. (source)dramatic irony = when the meaning of a situation is understood by one person, but not by another
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You sit there among the elder gods, disturbed by no sound except the slight rale of the one who has asthma, and wait for them to lean from the Olympian and sunlit detachment and comment, with their unenvious and foreknowing irony, on the goings-on of the folks who are still snared in the toils of mortal compulsions. (source)
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Whereas normally in literary works we watch characters who are our equals or even superiors, in an ironic work we watch characters struggle futilely with forces we might be able to overcome. (source)ironic = with characters who know less or have less autonomy than ourselves
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For instance, if you were in a restaurant and said out loud, "I can't wait to eat the veal marsala I ordered," and there were people around who knew that the veal marsala was poisoned and that you would die as soon as you took a bite, your situation would be one of dramatic irony. (source)dramatic irony = when the meaning of a situation is understood by one person, but not by another
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Dramatic irony is a cruel occurrence, one that is almost always upsetting, and I'm sorry to have it appear in this story, (source)
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...but Violet, Klaus, and Sunny have such unfortunate lives that it was only a matter of time before dramatic irony would rear its ugly head. (source)
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As you and I listen to Uncle Monty tell the three Baudelaire orphans that no harm will ever come to them in the Reptile Room, we should be experiencing the strange feeling that accompanies the arrival of dramatic irony.† (source)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus
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This form of disillusion is called 'romantic irony.' (source)irony = when a writer reminds the reader that the writer is manipulating the fictional universe
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In this work he did battle with Romantic irony and the Romantics' uncommitted play with illusion. (source)
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He posited 'Socratic irony' in contrast. (source)irony = when someone pretends to know less than they do
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Although that was another example of his rather sickly Romantic irony. (source)irony = when a writer reminds the reader that the writer is manipulating the fictional universe
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He would intervene in the story and address ironic comments to the reader (source)
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Was that romantic irony? (source)
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We call this Socratic irony. (source)irony = when someone pretends to understand less than they understand
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Even though Socrates had made use of irony to great effect, it had the purpose of eliciting the fundamental truths about life. (source)irony = Socratic irony: where a questioner acts as though they lack understanding of something and question someone else to expose inconsistencies in logic
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