tragicomedy

[traj-i-kom-i-dee]

noun

plural

tragicomedies 

1. a dramatic or other literary composition combining elements of both tragedy and comedy.

2. an incident, or series of incidents, of mixed tragic and comic character.

tragicomedy

/ ˌtrædʒɪˈkɒmɪdɪ /

noun

1. 1. a drama in which aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found

   2. the dramatic genre of works of this kind

2. an event or incident having both comic and tragic aspects

Other Word Forms

• tragicomic adjective
• tragicomically adverb
• tragicomical adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tragicomedy¹

1570–80; < Late Latin tragicōmoedia, syncopated variant of Latin tragicocōmoedia. See tragic, -o-, comedy

Word History and Origins

Origin of tragicomedy¹

C16: from French, ultimately from Late Latin tragicōmoedia ; see _tragedy , _comedy

Example Sentences

His breakthrough came with the overnight success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", a tragicomedy centred around two minor characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

Read more on Barron's

In the birthplace of Western drama, a classic night unfolded from around the hour-mark, in Greece and in Copenhagen, a tragicomedy and a mystery and a farce.

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“Memoir of a Snail” is a strange stop-motion tragicomedy straight out of Dickens that’s not about a gastropod but the grim life of a grief-stricken snail enthusiast.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It is a tragicomedy that mixes historical fact with the author's imagination.

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For anyone who’s ever felt adrift or behind in life, this keenly observed and inventively structured Argentine tragicomedy mines dry humor from the absurdity of social norms and its protagonist’s downhearted demeanor.

Read more on Los Angeles Times