<p>Does the SAT ALWAYS use it as the definition of how something happens contrary to what is expected for it to happen, or are there like, seperate meanings on the SAT for this word?</p>
<p>One dictionary says that ironic can also mean: humorously sarcastic or mocking..</p>
<p>Irony is when what is expected to happen is different (usually the opposite) than what actually happens. Verbal irony can come across as sarcasm/mocking.</p>
<p>this is a good question. Not getting the irony is a common pitfall on the CR, especially for those whose CR scores hover around 600. some of the harder questions (and they seem more frequent on the new SAT) are those written "tongue-in-cheek." And usually the college board doesn't come out and say "what was ironic about lines xxx?" Another CB favorite is to have a long string of rhetorical questions or ideas in the midst of a reading passage. It is easy to forget or not notice that the author really didn't agree with those ideas but instead was "setting up a straw man" to knock down. </p>
<p>An example of what I'm talking about would be the long paired passages about dogs that were in the last CR section of the first new SAT practice test that was released last fall and used to be dowloadable from CB. If you don't get that the author was really being sarcastic in most of the passage, you'll get a ton of questions wrong. I try to always ask myself as I'm reading a dense passage: "whose voice is this right now?" and "which side of the argument is being defended and how and by whom?"</p>
<p>The nice thing about these passages is that once you do spot the irony and understand it, the questions seem really easy and one answer choice usually jumps out the only possible answer.</p>
<p>so does the SAT use the regular definition of irony, or does it also use the verbal irony as irony too?</p>
<p>cause right now, its kinda hard to understand what the answer choices mean by "ironic"</p>