Richard Ford, Independence Day, (1995) 1996 I think I accomplish that pretty well." Paul looks over at me again with a distasteful look that might be ready to slide into sarcasm, only he doesn't know if I'm making fun of him. People, 26 June 2006 "But see," I say … "in my line of work I'm supposed to dress in a way that makes clients feel sorry for me, or better yet superior to me. "I really like the chance to win people over." - David Peisner, Spin, August 2007 "The best part of being single," Bryce Donovan jokes, "is being able to choose any woman I want to shoot me down." Such self-deprecating sarcasm is the trademark of this newsman's four-year-old weekly column "It Beats Working" in the Charleston Post and Courier. "I love audiences that are ambivalent." For a second, I think he's laying on the sarcasm, until he continues. "That was my favorite show yet this tour," Banks says. While most of these are in some way concerned with inducing laughter, sarcasm stands alone in denoting caustic language that is designed to cut or give pain. Sarcasm shares some semantic territory with a number of other English words, including wit, repartee, and humor.
Sarcasm is what we refer to as a noncount noun ("a noun that denotes a homogeneous substance or a concept without subdivisions and that in English is preceded in indefinite singular constructions by some rather than a or an"), and has no plural form.
But irony can also refer to a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected for example, it is ironic if someone who was raised by professional musicians but who wanted a very different kind of life then fell in love with and married a professional musician.
Irony can also refer to the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say the "they're really on top of things" statement about the very disorganized group of people can also be described as an ironic statement. Most often, sarcasm is biting, and intended to cause pain. For example, saying "they're really on top of things" to describe a group of people who are very disorganized is using sarcasm. Sarcasm refers to the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say, especially in order to insult someone, or to show irritation, or just to be funny. Given to heartless sarcasm satire applies to writing that exposes or ridicules conduct, doctrines, or institutions either by direct criticism or more often through irony, parody, or caricature.Ī satire on the Congress repartee implies the power of answering quickly, pointedly, or wittily.įrequently Asked Questions About sarcasm Is sarcasm the same as irony? The irony of the title sarcasm applies to expression frequently in the form of irony that is intended to cut or wound. wit suggests the power to evoke laughter by remarks showing verbal felicity or ingenuity and swift perception especially of the incongruous.Ī playful wit humor implies an ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life and to express these usually without bitterness.Ī sense of humor irony applies to a manner of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is seemingly expressed.
Wit, humor, irony, sarcasm, satire, repartee mean a mode of expression intended to arouse amusement.