means A situation, statement, or outcome where the apparent meaning is the opposite of the intended or expected one, often in a way that's pointed or strangely fitting.

from From the Greek 'eirōneia,' meaning dissimulation or feigned ignorance — the trick of the 'eirōn,' a stock character in Greek comedy who played dumb to expose a boastful fool. Socrates wielded this so famously (asking 'innocent' questions that quietly demolished his opponents) that 'Socratic irony' became its own thing. The word traveled through Latin 'ironia' into the European languages, gradually widening from 'saying one thing while meaning another' to the broader cosmic sense of expectation betrayed.