Irony: What It Really Means

Irony, the most overused and misused word in history. Recognize someone from work? Ironic. Car Stolen? Ironic. Stabbed in the eye by an angry grammar Nazi? Ironic.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. None of this is ironic. The work bit is a coincidence, the stolen car is misfortune, and they eye stab you had coming.

Irony is defined as the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. Or, to put is simply, the opposite of what you expected.

For example, a massive dog name tiny would be ironic, or sweating in a freezer. Getting hit by a car is not ironic, it’s just really bad luck.

Fortunately, I’m not the only one trying to right this grammatical wrong. Someone has been kind enough to create a site dedicated to determining the irony of a situation, Isitironic.com. This site lets people vote on whether a situation is ironic or not, then tells you the results. A genius idea that really cuts back on people misusing irony.

Irony: the opposite of the expected result. Next time you want to call something ironic, keep that in mind. Because chances are, it’s not.