English Satire

Vice

moral flaw or bad habit

Foible

minor weakness or minor human flaw

Satire

a manner of writing that mixes a critical attitude with wit and humor in an effort to improve humankind and human institutions.

Horatian Satire

pokes fun at human foibles and folly with a witty, gentle, and even indulgent tone

Juvenalian satire

denounces, sometimes harshly, human vice and error in dignified and solemn tones.

Irony

A mode of expression that uses words or events to convey a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration to achieve an effect; overstatement.

Litotes

A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite.

Caricature

An exaggeration or other distortion of an individual's prominent features or characteristics to the point of making that individual appear ridiculous.

Wit

Most commonly understood as a clever expression — whether aggressive or harmless, that is, with or without derogatory intent toward someone or something in particular.

Sarcasm

Intentional derision, generally directed at another person and intended to hurt.

Ridicule

Words intended to belittle a person or idea and arouse contemptuous laughter. The goal is to condemn or criticize by making the thing, idea, or person seem laughable and ridiculous.

Parody

An imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of ridiculing the author, ideas, or work.

Invective

Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. It can be directed against a person, cause, idea, or system. It employs a heavy use of negative emotive language.