tragicomedy
noun
tragi·com·e·dy ˌtra-ji-ˈkä-mə-dē 
: a drama or a situation blending tragic and comic elements
Example Sentences
The play is a tragicomedy about a man's search for love.
Recent Examples on the Web The play is a tragicomedy about a retirement home in northern Idaho where a record-breaking blizzard forces the last three residents to contemplate their own mortality when one of them wanders out into the storm. 
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Aug. 2022 The process was bumpy, a tragicomedy that unfurled over decades. New York Times, 21 Feb. 2022 That quote would seem to portend a mournful reflection on death and the sacrifices of art, but sparks of illumination, irreverence, tragicomedy and even joy continually fleck the material. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Feb. 2022 And don’t let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking it’s not a tragicomedy. New York Times, 8 Dec. 2021 This essence of choice and ambiguity and convolution is what Sondheim gave to theater—the idea that there’s infinitely more contained within the tragicomedy of human experience than can ever be set to music and sung on a stage. Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 30 Nov. 2021 The British actress writes, produces, co-directs and stars in this tragicomedy as Arabella, a struggling novelist trying to piece together the night she was drugged and raped at a bar. Usa Today Staff, USA TODAY, 15 Sep. 2021 The scene was podcast gold, full of action and tragicomedy and winking references. Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2021 The basic components of the tone of my films are the tragicomedy and a dash of the grotesque. Leo Barraclough, Variety, 25 Aug. 2021 See More
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Aug. 2022 The process was bumpy, a tragicomedy that unfurled over decades. New York Times, 21 Feb. 2022 That quote would seem to portend a mournful reflection on death and the sacrifices of art, but sparks of illumination, irreverence, tragicomedy and even joy continually fleck the material. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Feb. 2022 And don’t let its pure enjoyability mislead you into thinking it’s not a tragicomedy. New York Times, 8 Dec. 2021 This essence of choice and ambiguity and convolution is what Sondheim gave to theater—the idea that there’s infinitely more contained within the tragicomedy of human experience than can ever be set to music and sung on a stage. Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 30 Nov. 2021 The British actress writes, produces, co-directs and stars in this tragicomedy as Arabella, a struggling novelist trying to piece together the night she was drugged and raped at a bar. Usa Today Staff, USA TODAY, 15 Sep. 2021 The scene was podcast gold, full of action and tragicomedy and winking references. Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2021 The basic components of the tone of my films are the tragicomedy and a dash of the grotesque. Leo Barraclough, Variety, 25 Aug. 2021 See More Word History
Etymology
Middle French tragicomedie, from Old Italian tragicomedia, from Old Spanish, from Latin tragicomoedia, from tragicus + comoedia comedy
First Known Use
circa 1580, in the meaning defined above
tragicomedy
noun
as in comedy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- comedy
- melodrama
- tragedy
- psychodrama
- musical
- dramedy
- monodrama
- playlet
- musical comedy
- drama
- docudrama
- interlude
- comedy drama
- dramatization
- opus
- magnum opus
- adaptation
- work
- play