Definition of seriocomic
: having a mixture of the serious and the comic
- a seriocomic novel
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Recent Examples of seriocomic from the Web
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Tragedy strikes on Oscar night, splitting the emotions of Best Supporting Actor nominee Michael Stratford (Brian Hutchison) in the world premiere of playwright Paul Rudnick’s seriocomic ensemble piece, Big Night.
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Blair had tried to get financing for the seriocomic thriller for about a year, but was unable to coax famous-enough actors to satisfy studios and investors.
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Lighting and sound (designed by Jon Olson and Jason Ducat respectively) signal shifts from bitter to rueful, from seriocomic to sorrowful.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'seriocomic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
Seriocomic may have a modern ring to it, but our earliest evidence of the word in print is from 1783. Another "comic" word-heroicomic, meaning "comic by being ludicrously noble, bold, or elevated"-is slightly older; evidence of it dates to 1756. Both words are about a century younger than our third "comic" word, "tragicomic" ("manifesting both tragic and comic aspects"), which print evidence dates to 1683. (Evidence of the variant "tragicomical," however, dates all the way back to 1567.)
Origin and Etymology of seriocomic
serious + -o- + comic
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