Irony Understatement and Verbal Humour

C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Irony Understatement and Verbal Humour

Created by , British English teacher.

Open a theme, then select a word or phrase for its meaning and an example.

1. Ironical stance (20 entries)
  1. ironic distance
  2. ironic echo
  3. a dry retort
  4. make light of a serious situation
  5. keep a deadpan expression
  6. play it straight
  7. deliver a line deadpan
  8. a mock-solemn announcement
  9. make a barbed observation
  10. a sardonic aside
  11. no small matter
  12. that would be putting it kindly
  13. send up a convention
  14. make heavy weather of something
  15. have a field day
  16. much ado about nothing
  17. hardly a ringing endorsement
  18. indignant disbelief
  19. indignant
  20. taciturn
2. Understatement (20 entries)
  1. reticence
  2. litotes
  3. studied casualness
  4. deliberate minimisation
  5. a wry understatement
  6. be something of an understatement
  7. make an ironic understatement
  8. to say the least
  9. a double-edged compliment
  10. if ever there was one
  11. be no slouch at something
  12. not to be taken lightly
  13. deadpan understatement
  14. no mean feat
  15. poke fun at a pretension
  16. not to be sneezed at
  17. damning with faint praise
  18. not exactly cover oneself in glory
  19. attributive
  20. unsurpassed
3. Exaggeration for effect (20 entries)
  1. grandiosity
  2. overblown
  3. buffoonery
  4. provocation
  5. unexceptional
  6. lurid
  7. facile
  8. vitiate
  9. inexorable
  10. ignominious
  11. hyperbole
  12. calamity
  13. superfluous
  14. ferocity
  15. stultify
  16. menacing
  17. infernal
  18. calamitous
  19. infallible
  20. antediluvian
4. Wordplay and incongruity (20 entries)
  1. incongruity
  2. malapropism
  3. spoonerism
  4. bathos
  5. double entendre
  6. incongruous
  7. histrionic
  8. quirk
  9. frank incredulity
  10. timidity
  11. mundanity
  12. prissy
  13. insular
  14. unobtrusiveness
  15. deviant
  16. tetchy
  17. farcical
  18. idiosyncrasy
  19. tedium
  20. hapless
5. Humorous criticism (20 entries)
  1. derision
  2. innuendo
  3. ribbing
  4. raillery
  5. lampoon
  6. hold something up to ridicule
  7. a withering put-down
  8. a veiled insult
  9. a self-deprecating joke
  10. underplay the absurdity
  11. damn by association
  12. gallows humour
  13. send oneself up
  14. cut someone down with a quip
  15. wry amusement
  16. deride
  17. fractious
  18. haughty
  19. lament
  20. drudgery