satire means A literary device of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change or highlighting a shortcoming in the work of another. Imitation, humor, irony, and exaggeration are often used to aid this. It carries an Arena rating of 1833, earned across 26 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, satire ranks #132 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #658 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #974 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,191 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
satire is pronounced /ˈsætaɪɹ/.
Why “satire” is a great word
A literary or artistic work that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize human folly or vice, particularly in politics and society. From Middle French satire, from Latin satira or satura (poetic medley), from lanx satura (full dish, mixed offering), from satur (full); the Latin form was later altered by mistaken association with Greek σάτυρος (sáturos, satyr). Unlike parody, which primarily mimics a style for amusement, or sarcasm, a single, cutting remark, satire is a sustained, deliberate act of moral diagnosis. It is the pamphleteer’s scalpel disguised as a jest, the cartoonist’s grotesque exaggeration, the novelist’s absurd bureaucracy that processes souls like tax forms—each a mirror held up not to mock the individual, but to shame the species into seeing itself: a laughter that catches in the throat when it reveals the feast of folly and asks who went hungry.
Etymology
From Middle French satire, from Old French, from Latin satira, from earlier satura, from lanx satura (“full dish”), from feminine of satur. Altered in Latin by influence of Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos, “satyr”), on the mistaken notion that the form is related to the Greek σατυρικὸν δράμα (saturikòn dráma, “satyr drama”).
noun
- A literary device of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change or highlighting a shortcoming in the work of another. Imitation, humor, irony, and exaggeration are often used to aid this.
- A satirical work.e.g.“a stinging satire of American politics.”
- Severity of remark.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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