"Irony" Man

     If you were asked what word in the English language was the most misunderstood or misused, what would you say? Would it be "literally", when it is used in sentences such as, "It was literally raining cats and dogs"? Or would you suggest "like", one of the words that is striving to take the throne away from "um" for the word most used when we are filling time between thoughts. However, the writers from Dictionary.com have nominated another word for the most misused in English, "ironic".

     According the their article,

"Often the word “ironic” is misused to remark on a coincidence, such as “This is the third time today we've run into each other. How ironic.”

It is also mistakenly used to describe something out of the ordinary or unusual: “Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic.”

And, unfortunately, it is sometimes used to simply emphasize something interesting. For example, “Ironically, it was the best movie I've seen all year!”"

     Another important misuse of "ironic" is when it is used incorrectly in the place of the "sarcasm". The only time when something is really ironic, is when it is the exact opposite of it's literal meaning. A statement such as, "It's been such a good day" would be ironic if you were using it to describe the day you were late to work, wrecked your car, and got soaked in the rain. A sarcastic statement would be something like saying something like, "Wow, your shirt is so nice" to someone who has theirs caught on a nail and ripped, and is obviously embarrassed by it. The main difference between irony and sarcasm, is that with sarcasm, you are deliberately trying to taunt, harass or make fun of someone, while with irony you are not. 

     To learn more about irony and the different types of it there are, you can go to hotword.dictionary.com/ironic/.

1. http://hotword.dictionary.com/ironic/

2. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means