Related Terms • metaphor • trope • metonymy • synecdoche

Definition:
Irony is a type of trope which occurs when a something has two meanings, an obvious meaning and a latent meaning. However, the latent meaning is the opposite of the obvious meaning. Thus, a person is thought to be expressing one idea, but they are in fact expressing the exact opposite.

Usually, irony is also a form of humor because it can juxtapose two opposite ideas in a clever or unexpected manner. Irony is a difficult trope because a simple expression can be made ironic simply by changing the inflection of your voice.

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Alternate Spellings: none

Common Misspellings: none

Related Resources:

What is Aesthetics?
In philosophy, aesthetics is the study of beauty and taste, whether in the form of the comic, the tragic or the sublime. Aesthetics has traditionally been part of other philosophical pursuits like the investigation of epistemology or ethics. However, it started to come into its own and become a more independent pursuit under Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher who saw aesthetics as a unitary and self-sufficient type of human experience.

What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?