Meaning & use
situational irony
A literary device in which the actual outcome of a situation is starkly different from what was expected.
See it in a sentence
It was situational irony that the fire station itself burned down last winter.
The story's situational irony lies in the hero causing the very disaster he tried to prevent.
A note on using this word
Situational irony differs from verbal irony, where a speaker says the opposite of what they mean, and dramatic irony, where the audience knows more than the characters.
Words with a similar meaning
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