incongruity

noun

in·​con·​gru·​i·​ty ˌin-kən-ˈgrü-ə-tē 

-ˌkän-

plural incongruities

1

: the quality or state of being incongruous

2

: something that is incongruous

Synonyms

• contradiction
• dichotomy
• paradox

Example Sentences

she's an incongruity: an impeccably groomed woman who keeps a messy house

Recent Examples on the Web

The incongruity was enough to remind a viewer of The Maverick. —Hazlitt, 17 May 2023

What made Fleshman’s comments particularly funny was their incongruity. —Mythili G. Rao, Washington Post, 14 Mar. 2023

The shocking incongruity of Uber’s pricing in particular went viral when Sunny Madra, vice-president of Ford’s accelerator program, posted screenshots of a Wednesday morning ride from midtown Manhattan to JFK Airport that cost $248.90 — about as much as his flight to San Francisco. —Alissa Walker, Curbed, 4 June 2021

Hesse strived in the late 1960s to create hybrid objects that transcended painting and sculpture, both embracing and eschewing the dominant Minimalist language of repetitive forms and hard edges, while celebrating her passion for materiality and incongruity. —Natasha Gural, Forbes, 12 July 2022

In The Idiot, the jokes come often and freely, and are propelled not through punchlines but the incongruities of everyday life. —Vulture, 4 Apr. 2023

Loosely inspired by the story of the actual last remaining Blockbuster (also the subject of a Netflix documentary entitled The Last Blockbuster), Blockbuster clearly doesn’t want its audience to dwell on the incongruity of a streaming series trading on nostalgia for a brick-and-mortar retail chain. —Vikram Murthi, Chron, 3 Nov. 2022

The incongruity is hard to stomach. —WIRED, 23 Mar. 2023

But the latest and maybe last Wick also leans into the comic (and comic-book) incongruity of the material. —A.a. Dowd, Chron, 14 Mar. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

circa 1532, in the meaning defined at sense 1