tragicomedy

noun

tragi·​com·​e·​dy ˌtra-ji-ˈkä-mə-dē 

: a drama or a situation blending tragic and comic elements

Examples of tragicomedy in a Sentence

The play is a tragicomedy about a man's search for love.

Recent Examples on the Web

In Facility Theatre’s new revival of the Irish playwright’s absurdist tragicomedy, the blind and paralyzed character (played by artistic director Kirk Anderson) looks like a slightly steampunk Scrooge, writes Emily McClanathan. —Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2025

The man who shuffled offstage last year in the middle of the play — an absurdist tragicomedy plagued by poor reviews and weak attendance — has shuffled back onto it. —Rich Lowry, National Review, 9 May 2025

With a classic heist structure and flashes of tragicomedy, this series, directed by Federico Veiroj and Rodrigo Santos, promises humor and suspense. —Jamie Lang, Variety, 29 Apr. 2025

The audience—both the fictional one upstate and the real one in Manhattan—soon slips into a world where human-scale beach balls and painter’s buckets become a playground for physical investigation, where the tragicomedy of real life slips in through the cracks. —Laura Regensdorf, Vogue, 25 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle French tragicomedie, from Old Italian tragicomedia, from Old Spanish, from Latin tragicomoedia, from tragicus + comoedia comedy

First Known Use

circa 1580, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for tragicomedy

• comedy

Kids Definition

tragicomedy

noun

tragi·​com·​edy

ˌtraj-i-ˈkäm-əd-ē

: a play or situation which blends tragic and comic elements

tragicomic

-ˈkäm-ik

adjective

also tragicomical

-i-kəl