Webster's New World College dictionary defines irony as: "the contrast, as in a play, between what a character thinks the truth is, as revealed in a speech or action, and what an audience or reader knows the truth to be: often dramatic irony."

Harmon and Holman say:"A broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from appearance...At a certain depth of irony, saying what you do not mean gives way to being unable to say what you mean...The effectiveness of irony is the impression it gives of restraint.  The ironist writes with tongue-in-cheek" (277).