dramatic irony

noun

literature

: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play : irony sense 2b

All the other doctors are knownothing quacks; that the audience has more medical knowledge than they is but one example of the dramatic irony which is a feature of Alan Bennett's brilliant script.

—Alan Geary

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Beanie Mania looks at Ty Warner’s empire of plush — giving all the dramatic irony and quirky personalities of a true crime doc, plus all the #tbt yearnings for a simpler time of The Toys That Made Us. —Bethy Squires, Vulture, 15 Dec. 2021

The genius dramatic irony here, as loyal viewers know, is that Úrsula has a target on her back. —Laura Zornosa, Time, 25 Oct. 2022

Lovers of dramatic irony have a lot to dig into here. —Joshua Rivera, The Verge, 11 Jan. 2021

Every line was written with an eye on an all-too-aware 2022 audience, substituting cheap dramatic irony for genuine drama that none of the writers figured out how to generate. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Apr. 2022

The film’s most powerful narrative device is a near-continuous deployment of this type of dramatic irony. —Kevin Dettmar, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2022

Winning Time has received some criticism for a possible excess of the fourth-wall-breaking, dramatic irony and genre-tweaking that are McKay’s hallmarks. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Mar. 2022

This is dramatic irony, and a call-back to the use of the song at the very end of the original series. —Jackson Mchenry, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2021

The budding rapper challenged White to push himself and inspired him to further hone is craft, but there is sad, dramatic irony in knowing Shakur would be gunned down at age 25 after reaching the heights of music stardom. —Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2021

See More

Word History

First Known Use

1881, in the meaning defined above