Irony (from the Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία
eirōneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a situation,
literary technique, or
rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance that goes strikingly beyond the most simple and evident meaning of words or actions. Verbal and situational irony is often intentionally used as emphasis in an assertion of a truth. The ironic form of
simile, or the irony of
sarcasm or
litotes may involve the emphasis of one's meaning by deliberate use of language that states the direct opposite of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.
In fictional dramatic irony, the
artist causes a character, acting as a mouthpiece, to speak or act in a way intentionally contrary to the truth. This again is a method that highlights the literal facts by giving the example of a fictional persona who is strikingly ignorant of them.
In certain kinds of situational or historical irony, that occur outside works of fiction, a certain factual truth is highlighted by some person's complete ignorance of it, or belief in the opposite of it—however, this contrast does
not occur by human design. In some religious contexts, such situations have been seen as the deliberate work of divine providence to emphasize facts, and taunt or toy with humans for not being aware of them in situations where they could easily have been enlightened (this is similar to human use of irony). Such ironies are often more evident, or more striking, when viewed retrospectively in the light of later developments that make the truth of past situations obvious to all.
Almost all irony involves commentary that heightens tension naturally involved in the state and fate of a person (in the present, or the past) who badly needs to know a given fact they could easily know but does not.