Irony is the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal
meaning. Similarly, irony
may be a statement or situation where the
meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea
Many people believe verbal irony to be synonymous with sarcasm, but sarcasm is only one of the common types of verbal irony. It appears in four basic forms:
1- sarcasm (saying “
Oh, fantastic!” when the situation is actually very
bad)
2-Socratic irony (pretending to be
ignorant to show that someone else is ignorant: "I'm confused, I thought your curfew was at 11. Isn't it past 12 now?")
3- understatement (saying "We don't get along" after having a huge fight with someone)
4- overstatement (saying "I'll
die if I can't go to the concert!")