websters: the combination of circumstances or a result is the opposite of what might be expected or considered appropriate.
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wikipedia: a form of expression in which an implicit meaning is concealed or contradicted by the explicit meaning of the expression. irony involves the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem.
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not simply schadenfreude here or identification with some unfortunate circumstance or tragedy, but real twists of fate... stories that point to the folly of human behaviors...

http://tribes.tribe.net/oti