Okuzeka
Literature vocabulary · Drama and Theatre

Tragicomedy

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounCommon term

In literature, tragicomedy means: A dramatic work combining serious or tragic elements with comic ones.

In Turkish: trajikomedi

How it is used

Use when comedy and suffering coexist in the work's structure, not only in one isolated joke.

Example sentences

  1. The tragicomedy makes us laugh at the brothers' quarrels while their home slowly disappears.

    The humor remains entangled with a serious loss.

  2. The director kept the ending uncertain to preserve the tragicomedy's uneasy balance.

    A fully happy ending would settle the tension between the two modes.

Common collocations

  • modern tragicomedy
  • write a tragicomedy
  • tragedyA serious play or story in which the main character suffers and is usually destroyed, often because of a personal flaw or a fatal mistake.
  • comedyA play or story meant to amuse, usually built on misunderstandings and humor and ending happily, often with reunions or marriages.

More terms: Drama and Theatre

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: