antiphrasis

Definitions

Use of a word or phrase in a sense opposite of its literal meaning, especially for ironic or humorous effect.

countable, rhetoric, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“When they called him “bad as hell”, they weren’t calling him evil. It was antiphrasis.”

“By the turn⟳ of this century the situation concerning logic was quite simple: there was basically one logic (classical logic) which could be used (by changing the set⟳ of proper axioms) in various situations. Logic was about pure reasoning. Brouwer’s criticism destroyed this dream⟳ of unity: classical logic was not suited for constructive features and therefore it lost its universality. Now by the end⟳ of the century we are faced with an incredible number⟳ of logics-some of them only named ‘logic’ by antiphrasis, some of them introduced on serious grounds.”

CEFR level