Incongruity
noun
The state of not fitting together or not being suitable for each other.
There is an incongruity between his recent actions and his claimed values.
noun
Something that is different from what is usual or expected, often making the situation seem ridiculous.
Everyone laughed at the incongruity of a clown entering a serious meeting.
Usage tips
Disapproving
noun
The state of not fitting together or not being suitable for each other.
There is an incongruity between his recent actions and his claimed values.
noun
Something that is different from what is usual or expected, often making the situation seem ridiculous.
Everyone laughed at the incongruity of a clown entering a serious meeting.
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Mismatch Highlight
Use 'incongruity' to point out things that don't match up as expected.
The incongruity of her punk style in the formal event caused a stir.
Pro Tip 2/3Expectation vs Reality
It emphasizes when there's a gap between what's anticipated and what actually happens.
He felt an incongruity in the quiet office which was usually buzzing with activity.
Pro Tip 3/3Moral Contradiction
Use it to express a clash between professed principles and actual behavior.
Voters noticed the incongruity between the politician's promises and his voting record.
Pro Tip 1/3Mismatch Highlight
Use 'incongruity' to point out things that don't match up as expected.
The incongruity of her punk style in the formal event caused a stir.
Pro Tip 2/3Expectation vs Reality
It emphasizes when there's a gap between what's anticipated and what actually happens.
He felt an incongruity in the quiet office which was usually buzzing with activity.
Pro Tip 3/3Moral Contradiction
Use it to express a clash between professed principles and actual behavior.
Voters noticed the incongruity between the politician's promises and his voting record.
Pro Tip 1/3Mismatch Highlight
Use 'incongruity' to point out things that don't match up as expected.
The incongruity of her punk style in the formal event caused a stir.
Pro Tip 2/3Expectation vs Reality
It emphasizes when there's a gap between what's anticipated and what actually happens.
He felt an incongruity in the quiet office which was usually buzzing with activity.
Pro Tip 3/3Moral Contradiction
Use it to express a clash between professed principles and actual behavior.
Voters noticed the incongruity between the politician's promises and his voting record.
Compare with
absurdityconsistencydisparitydissimilarityimproprietylikelihoodmismatchpeculiarity
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Video examples
How to make your writing...
Humor is subjective. Comedy is trial and error. Writing is rewriting. Just keep trying. Find the flaws, discover the details, insert incongruities, incorporate k-words, and remember the most important rule of writing have fun.
Video examples
Bob Mankoff: Anatomy of...
Now these look like very different forms of humor but actually they bear a great similarity. In each instance, our expectations are defied. In each instance, the narrative gets switched. There's an incongruity and a contrast.
Video examples
How to make your writing...
Humor is subjective. Comedy is trial and error. Writing is rewriting. Just keep trying. Find the flaws, discover the details, insert incongruities, incorporate k-words, and remember the most important rule of writing have fun.
Video examples
Bob Mankoff: Anatomy of...
Now these look like very different forms of humor but actually they bear a great similarity. In each instance, our expectations are defied. In each instance, the narrative gets switched. There's an incongruity and a contrast.
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Dick Cavett
American Entertainer
I have a feeling that about 90% of my life has been shaped by my voice, both as an embarrassment and as an advantage. There was always the terrible incongruity of this deep voice barreling out of this little body. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that it was ludicrous, that it took on an importance that wasn't really there.
Quote examples
Robert Mankoff
American Artist
One question about a joke is, how well is the strangeness of the situation resolved? At 'The New Yorker', we retain a lot of incongruity, tapping the playful part of the mind - Monty Python-type stuff. We also try to use humor as a vehicle for communicating ideas. Not editorial comment, but observation.
Quote examples
Andrew Shaffer
American Author
In 'Hope Never Dies', Biden attempts to disguise himself with a beach look, hoping that the incongruity of it will allow him to snoop around Wilmington without being recognized. Obama, on the other hand, knows the best way to keep a low profile is to just be himself.
Quote examples
Maria Konnikova
American Writer
Las vegas shouldn't exist. The incongruity hits you from the moment you first glimpse it from the airplane. First mountains, then desert, then neat squares of identical houses that look as if they were plucked straight from Monopoly.
Quote examples
Joanna Scott
American Author
I don't think Donald Barthelme would have minded being called a confusing writer. Confusion was a favorite subject for him in his essays and reviews, and it's enacted in his fiction in a mishmash of dizzying incongruities.
Quote examples
George Eliot
British Author
Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.
Quote examples
Emmett Kelly
American Entertainer
Incongruity, they say, is one of the main ingredients of humor. Maybe it's because everybody can feel superior to me. I honestly don't know.
Quote examples
Reinhold Niebuhr
American Theologian
The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.
Quote examples
William Hazlitt
English Critic
Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
Quote examples
Max Beerbohm
English Actor
Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.
Quote examples
Dick Cavett
American Entertainer
I have a feeling that about 90% of my life has been shaped by my voice, both as an embarrassment and as an advantage. There was always the terrible incongruity of this deep voice barreling out of this little body. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that it was ludicrous, that it took on an importance that wasn't really there.
Quote examples
Robert Mankoff
American Artist
One question about a joke is, how well is the strangeness of the situation resolved? At 'The New Yorker', we retain a lot of incongruity, tapping the playful part of the mind - Monty Python-type stuff. We also try to use humor as a vehicle for communicating ideas. Not editorial comment, but observation.
Quote examples
Andrew Shaffer
American Author
In 'Hope Never Dies', Biden attempts to disguise himself with a beach look, hoping that the incongruity of it will allow him to snoop around Wilmington without being recognized. Obama, on the other hand, knows the best way to keep a low profile is to just be himself.
Quote examples
Maria Konnikova
American Writer
Las vegas shouldn't exist. The incongruity hits you from the moment you first glimpse it from the airplane. First mountains, then desert, then neat squares of identical houses that look as if they were plucked straight from Monopoly.
Quote examples
Joanna Scott
American Author
I don't think Donald Barthelme would have minded being called a confusing writer. Confusion was a favorite subject for him in his essays and reviews, and it's enacted in his fiction in a mishmash of dizzying incongruities.
Quote examples
George Eliot
British Author
Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.
Quote examples
Emmett Kelly
American Entertainer
Incongruity, they say, is one of the main ingredients of humor. Maybe it's because everybody can feel superior to me. I honestly don't know.
Quote examples
Reinhold Niebuhr
American Theologian
The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.
Quote examples
William Hazlitt
English Critic
Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
Quote examples
Max Beerbohm
English Actor
Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.
Example 1 of 10
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