tragicomedy
Americannoun
plural
tragicomedies-
a dramatic or other literary composition combining elements of both tragedy and comedy.
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an incident, or series of incidents, of mixed tragic and comic character.
noun
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a drama in which aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found
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the dramatic genre of works of this kind
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an event or incident having both comic and tragic aspects
Other Word Forms
- tragicomic adjective
- tragicomical adjective
- tragicomically adverb
Etymology
Origin of tragicomedy
1570–80; < Late Latin tragicōmoedia, syncopated variant of Latin tragicocōmoedia. See tragic, -o-, comedy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her lead performance as a therapist, caretaker to an acutely ill daughter and maker of curious decisions showcases the Australian actor’s distinctive gift for tragicomedy.
From Los Angeles Times
His breakthrough came with the overnight success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", a tragicomedy centred around two minor characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
From Barron's
In the birthplace of Western drama, a classic night unfolded from around the hour-mark, in Greece and in Copenhagen, a tragicomedy and a mystery and a farce.
From BBC
“Memoir of a Snail” is a strange stop-motion tragicomedy straight out of Dickens that’s not about a gastropod but the grim life of a grief-stricken snail enthusiast.
From Los Angeles Times
It is a tragicomedy that mixes historical fact with the author's imagination.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
