Skip to content
Word Unpacked.

sarcasm

noun [ˈsɑɹˌkæzəm]
pronunciation CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, open source

Sarcasm is sharp, mocking speech in which someone says the opposite of what they mean in order to ridicule, belittle or show contempt for a person or idea.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

  1. The use of remarks that clearly mean the opposite of what they say, made in order to hurt, mock or show scorn.
    source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
  2. A single cutting remark of this kind; a taunt delivered in a tone that makes the speaker's contempt obvious.
    source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
  3. A habitual mocking attitude in someone's way of speaking or writing, used as a defence or as a weapon in argument.
    source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

Usage

Sarcasm depends almost entirely on delivery. The words of a sarcastic remark are often perfectly friendly, such as thanks a lot or nice job, and it is the flat or exaggerated tone, the raised eyebrow or the timing that turns them into a jab. Because written text strips away most of these signals, sarcasm in emails, chat messages and comments is easy to miss, and readers may take a mocking line at face value or read hostility into a sincere one.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Sarcasm is usually described as a kind of irony, but the two are not interchangeable. Irony is the broader device of saying one thing and meaning another, and it can be gentle, playful or turned on oneself. Sarcasm narrows that device to a target and adds an edge of contempt. A useful test is to ask who is meant to feel small: if the remark is aimed at a person and meant to sting, it is sarcasm; if it simply notes a contradiction in the world, it is irony.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

The noun is mostly uncountable, as in a hint of sarcasm or heavy sarcasm, but it can be countable when it refers to individual remarks, as in the sarcasms of his critics, a use that Webster's 1913 dictionary illustrates. The adjective is sarcastic and the adverb sarcastically. Common phrases include dripping with sarcasm, a touch of sarcasm, biting sarcasm and the informal question are you being sarcastic, which people ask when the tone leaves them unsure.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Word forms

Regular forms according to English morphology (editorial description).

word forms

przypadek forma
singular sarcasm
plural sarcasms

Word forms: Editorial team

Collocations

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms mockery, derision, scorn
source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Antonyms sincerity, praise, earnestness
source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

From French sarcasme, which Cotgrave glossed as “a biting taunt”, from Latin sarcasmus and Greek sarkasmos “a sneer”. The Greek noun comes from the verb sarkazein, literally “to tear flesh like dogs”, then “to bite the lips in rage, to sneer”, built on sarx, stem sark-, “flesh”. Skeat cites the English word from Blount's Glossographia in the 1674 edition.
source W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open source
also Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

Related words

Related entries

Questions and answers

What does sarcasm mean?

Sarcasm means saying the opposite of what you mean in a mocking tone, usually to criticise or make fun of someone. Saying "well done" to a person who has just dropped all the plates is a typical sarcastic remark.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Is sarcasm the same as irony?

Not quite. Sarcasm is a form of irony, but it is aimed at someone and meant to sting. Irony in general can be mild or affectionate, and it can also describe situations, while sarcasm always describes something a person says.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

How do you show sarcasm in writing?

Writers rely on context, exaggeration and sometimes italics, quotation marks or an emoji, because the tone of voice that normally signals sarcasm is missing. In informal online writing some people add a tag such as /s at the end of a sarcastic sentence.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word sarcasm come from?

It reached English through French and Latin from Greek sarkasmos. Skeat traces it to the verb sarkazein, which literally meant to tear flesh like dogs and later to sneer, from sarx, the Greek word for flesh.

source Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)