INCONGRUITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does incongruity mean? 

• INCONGRUITY (noun)
  The noun INCONGRUITY has 1 sense:

1. the quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate

  Familiarity information: INCONGRUITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCONGRUITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

incongruity; incongruousness

Hypernyms ("incongruity" is a kind of...):

incompatibility (the quality of being unable to exist or work in congenial combination)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "incongruity"):

irony (incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs)

Antonym:

congruity (the quality of agreeing; being suitable and appropriate)

Derivation:

incongruous (lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness)

 Context examples 

He smiled bitterly at the incongruity of it, and was assailed by doubts.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But he had fancied her in love with him; that evidently must have been his dependence; and after raving a little about the seeming incongruity of gentle manners and a conceited head, Emma was obliged in common honesty to stop and admit that her own behaviour to him had been so complaisant and obliging, so full of courtesy and attention, as (supposing her real motive unperceived) might warrant a man of ordinary observation and delicacy, like Mr. Elton, in fancying himself a very decided favourite.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)