(ī′rə·nē) noun plural ·nies
1. The use of words to signify the opposite of what they usually express; ridicule disguised as praise or compliment; covert sarcasm or satire.
2. The feigning of ignorance, as in the Socratic method of questions and answers: hence Socratic irony.
3. A condition of affairs or events exactly the reverse of what was expected: the irony of fate. [<L ironia <Gk. eirōneia <eirōn dissembler <erein question, ask]

(ī′ər·nē) adjective
Of or like iron.