Definition of PARODY

Other Words from parody

Noun

parodic \pə-ˈrä-dik,

pa- \ adjective

parodistic \ˌper-ə-ˈdi-stik,

ˌpa-rə- \ adjective

Choose the Right Synonym for parody

Noun

caricature, burlesque, parody, travesty mean a comic or grotesque imitation. caricature implies ludicrous exaggeration of the characteristic features of a subject. caricatures of politicians in cartoons burlesque implies mockery especially through giving a serious or lofty subject a frivolous treatment. a nightclub burlesque of a trial in court parody applies especially to treatment of a trivial or ludicrous subject in the exactly imitated style of a well-known author or work. a witty parody of a popular novel travesty implies that the subject remains unchanged but that the style is extravagant or absurd. this production is a travesty of the opera

Examples of parody in a Sentence

Noun

He has a talent for writing parodies. a writer with a talent for parody

Verb

It was easy to parody the book's fancy language. She parodied her brother's poetry.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Between the strobe-like flashing billboards, the frisky Elmos, and the overly aggressive Nuts4Nuts hawkers, New York’s buzzing heartbeat has become a parody of itself, all chaos and no cool. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Two Very Big Reasons You Should Do Your Holiday Shopping in Midtown Manhattan," 20 Nov. 2018 Their tongue-in-cheek parody fooled some Amazon customers back in January, but hopefully everyone gets in on the joke this time. — Caroline Picard, Good Housekeeping, "How to Stream the Royal Wedding Online," 5 May 2018 The thing is, the @itssza parody Twitter was too perfect to part with. — Lindsey Lanquist, SELF, "I Fell for This Fake SZA Twitter Account Full of the Internet’s Realest Romantic Advice," 3 May 2018 Not every subreddit is broad and overpopulated with the kind of foul-mouthed Redditors that are self-serious to the point of parody. — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, "5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Reddit," 15 July 2015 Though originally written as a parody of slasher films, the final product ended up as a half-comical, half-serious flick about a slumber party that gets disrupted by a power-drill-slinging murderer. — Ashley Nkadi, Teen Vogue, "15 Scary Movies Directed by Women Perfect for Halloween," 30 Oct. 2018 Watson also produced a parody of an Amazon recruitment video in 2015. — Asia Fields, The Seattle Times, "Seattle police lip-sync video swiftly lampooned, spliced with images of downtown protests," 26 July 2018 Groban joked, shortly before inviting members of current Broadway ensembles on stage for a tongue-in-cheek parody. — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, "6 things you should know happened at Sunday's Tony Awards," 11 June 2018 Part of what makes the song so rife for parody is the song’s repetitive structure. — Jaya Saxena, GQ, ""Two Princes" Is the World's Catchiest Punchline," 23 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The inexplicable design choice was most famously parodied in a Saturday Night Live sketch where Ryan Gosling obsesses over it, eventually confronting a fictional version of the film’s graphic designer and screaming in the rain. — Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge, "James Cameron’s Avatar sequels have finally moved on from Papyrus," 29 Oct. 2018 Within weeks of winning her primary, O’Donnell went from a shock victory to being parodied on Saturday Night Live — a fate many conservatives would love to see befall Ocasio-Cortez. — Jane Coaston, Vox, "Why conservatives love to hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," 20 Aug. 2018 Another surprise followed, in Lolita’s family tradition: a video directed by her mother starring all their family and friends, hilariously parodying Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal wedding. — Vogue, "Stylist Lolita Jacobs’s Effortlessly Chic Wedding in the South of France," 26 July 2018 For those who dream of seeing the day-to-day lives of the Royal family, check out The Windsors, a British series that parodies the royal family soap opera style. — Mahita Gajanan, Time, "The Best Shows and Movies to Watch on Netflix Before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding," 7 May 2018 Armstrong wrote on his verified Twitter account, parodying a similar tweet from Musk about Tesla’s weekly output. — Bloomberg, latimes.com, "Musk declares Tesla 'just became a real car company.' But can it keep building Model 3 vehicles at this pace?," 2 July 2018 From talk radio to Fox News to Breitbart, alternative public spheres coalesced as echo chambers, where climate science could be regularly parried and parodied and conservative precepts about government overreach perpetually reinforced. — Christopher Sellers, Vox, "How Republicans came to embrace anti-environmentalism," 6 July 2018 The Onion started in 1988 as a student-run publication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and grew to national prominence by parodying newspapers with satirical headlines and stories. — Robert Channick, chicagotribune.com, "Univision looks to sell The Onion, Gizmodo websites," 11 July 2018 The rhetorical overkill used to describe a mediocre but well-intentioned presidency was so over-the-top it was parodied in a famous Simpsons bit: Carter was a Republican bogeyman in 1988, and when Bill Clinton came along. — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Poll: Barack Obama Was the Greatest President of Our Lifetime," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'parody.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.