ZebraWords.com - The Definition of 'Satire', Synonyms of 'Satire' & More on 'Satire'

1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)

satire
    n 1: witty language used to convey insults or scorn; "he used
         sarcasm to upset his opponent"; "irony is wasted on the
         stupid"; "Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do
         generally discover everybody's face but their own"--
         Jonathan Swift [syn: sarcasm, irony, satire, caustic
         remark]

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Satire \Sat"ire\ (?; in Eng. often ?; 277), n. [L. satira,
   satura, fr. satura (sc. lanx) a dish filled with various
   kinds of fruits, food composed of various ingredients, a
   mixture, a medley, fr. satur full of food, sated, fr. sat,
   satis, enough: cf. F. satire. See Sate, Sad, a., and cf.
   Saturate.]
   1. A composition, generally poetical, holding up vice or
      folly to reprobation; a keen or severe exposure of what in
      public or private morals deserves rebuke; an invective
      poem; as, the Satires of Juvenal.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Keeness and severity of remark; caustic exposure to
      reprobation; trenchant wit; sarcasm.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Lampoon; sarcasm; irony; ridicule; pasquinade;
        burlesque; wit; humor.
        [1913 Webster] Satiric

3. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)

SATIRE, n.  An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the
vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with
imperfect tenderness.  In this country satire never had more than a
sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we
are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all
humor, being tolerant and sympathetic.  Moreover, although Americans
are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not
generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the
satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever
victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.

    Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
    In the dead language of a mummy's tongue,
    For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well --
    Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
    Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
    Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
                                                          Barney Stims

Thesaurus Results for Satire:

1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

Atticism, English sonnet, Goliardic verse, Horatian ode, Hudibrastic verse, Italian sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet, Pindaric ode, Rabelaisian, Sapphic ode, Shakespearean sonnet, agile wit, alba, amoebean verse, anacreontic, balada, ballad, ballade, banter, black humor, bucolic, burlesque, canso, caricature, cartoon, causticity, chaffing, chanson, clerihew, comedy, concrete poetry, cubist poetry, cynicism, dirge, dithyramb, dramatic poetry, dry wit, eclogue, elegiac poetry, elegy, epic, epic poetry, epigram, epithalamium, epode, epopee, epopoeia, epos, erotic poetry, esprit, exaggeration, farce, georgic, ghazel, haiku, hatchet job, heroic poetry, humor, idyll, imagist verse, imitation, innuendo, invective, irony, jingle, lampoon, light verse, limerick, lyric, madrigal, malicious parody, melic poetry, metaphysical poetry, mock-heroic poetry, mockery, monody, narrative poem, narrative poetry, nimble wit, nursery rhyme, ode, oral poetry, palinode, parody, pasquil, pasquin, pasquinade, pastiche, pastoral, pastoral elegy, pastorela, pastourelle, persiflage, pleasantry, poem, poison pen, polyphonic prose, pretty wit, prose poetry, prothalamium, quick wit, raillery, ready wit, rhyme, ridicule, rondeau, rondel, roundel, roundelay, runic verse, salt, sarcasm, satiric wit, satirical poetry, savor of wit, sestina, slapstick, slapstick humor, sloka, song, sonnet, sonnet sequence, spoof, spoofery, spoofing, squib, stichomythia, subtle wit, symbolist verse, take-off, takeoff, tanka, tenso, tenzone, threnody, travesty, triolet, troubadour poem, vers de societe, verse, verselet, versicle, villanelle, virelay, visual humor, wicked imitation, wit

Common Misspellings >