# Irony or Ierny?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 16, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273 "2007-03-16T23:15:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273/1 "2007-03-16T23:15:33Z")

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I’ve been hearing different pronunciations of “irony” a lot lately.

Is it eye-ron-ee or eye-ern-ee? I tend to eye-ron-ee as eye-ern-ic and eye-ern-ical would not sound right. Or could those forms be pronounced differently from eye-ern-ee? That woud be, like, ironic.

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### Author: ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273/2 "2007-03-16T23:28:42Z")

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According to [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com), either is acceptable. The first entry given is ahy-ruh-nee, so that’s most likely the more accepted pronunciation.

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### Author: ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2007, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273/3 "2007-03-17T09:47:52Z")

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[QUOTE=Ignatz]  
Is it eye-ron-ee or eye-ern-ee?  
[/QUOTE]  
I’ve only ever heard the first version.

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### Author: ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2007, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273/4 "2007-03-17T10:50:35Z")

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[QUOTE=x-ray vision]  
According to [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com), either is acceptable. The first entry given is ahy-ruh-nee, so that’s most likely the more accepted pronunciation.  
[/QUOTE]

eye ruh nee

But then again it’s feb roo air ee, joo el ree, and ree ul tor, and not enough people care about those either.

Eventually the polloi wear all pedants down, and their collective triumph finds its way into the dictionary.

It’s enough to make the POTUS himself go nuke you lar.

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### Author: ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irony-or-ierny/396273/5 "2007-03-17T12:27:34Z")

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When in doubt, it’s Throat-Warbler Mangrove for the win.