How to Use tragicomedy in a Sentence

tragicomedy

noun
  • The play is a tragicomedy about a man's search for love.
  • The basic components of the tone of my films are the tragicomedy and a dash of the grotesque.
    Leo Barraclough, Variety, 25 Aug. 2021
  • Few would dare, at this point, to guess what the next act in the national tragicomedy will be.
    Jack Holmes, Esquire, 1 Aug. 2017
  • The process was bumpy, a tragicomedy that unfurled over decades.
    New York Times, 21 Feb. 2022
  • Sure, and have the rest of my life be a tragicomedy of nicotine withdrawal.
    Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019
  • Through years of filming the tragicomedy, the two actors learned to deeply trust each other.
    Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
  • And speaking of tragicomedies, The Farewell was also ignored.
    Candice Frederick, Harper's BAZAAR, 14 Jan. 2020
  • But while Iannucci whips up a fever-pitch frenzy, his film is not a farce, but a tragicomedy.
    Christopher Kompanek, Houston Chronicle, 21 Mar. 2018
  • The mirth picks up as the storytelling kicks into gear, thanks to Aleichem’s brisk narrative voice and gift for tragicomedy.
    Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2021
  • We are thrust into a martial-arts movie for the ages, yes, but also a sly tragicomedy of cross-generational angst.
    Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Say this, too: The high drama of the show’s funeral scenes or the blunt tragicomedy of the again-as-farce restaging of the 2016 election weren’t what this particular show does notably well.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 28 May 2023
  • The film is a tragicomedy about four young people in a holiday home on the Baltic coast who are threatened by an encroaching forest fire.
    Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2023
  • After his breakout role in the German tragicomedy Good Bye, Lenin!
    Radhika Seth, Vogue, 9 Mar. 2023
  • After his breakout role in the German tragicomedy Good Bye, Lenin!
    Radhika Seth, Vogue, 13 Mar. 2024
  • The scene was podcast gold, full of action and tragicomedy and winking references.
    Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2021
  • Iannucci refers to it as a tragicomedy, folding the horror of this world right up next to absurd comedy.
    Katie Walsh, idahostatesman, 5 Apr. 2018
  • If this sounds a bit heady for a rollicking tragicomedy in which pratfalls and death throes are tumbled together, that is part of the play’s unusual scheme.
    Jesse Green, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2018
  • That’s one way of looking at Bess Wohl’s tragicomedy featuring four siblings, ages 5 through 12.
    Ben Brantley, New York Times, 3 Dec. 2019
  • Modern dating can feel like one endless tragicomedy: the swiping, the awkward first dates, and all the ghosting included.
    Frances Solá-Santiago, refinery29.com, 31 Jan. 2023
  • In this traumedy-slash-tragicomedy-slash-dramedy about grief and mental health, Jimmy’s life falls apart after the sudden death of his wife.
    Dana Feldman, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2023
  • The Book in paperback Tuesday for those still clinging to Whedon’s geeky tragicomedy about a wannabe supervillain.
    Scott Thill, WIRED, 24 Mar. 2011
  • The comedian has instead opted to do new projects, like the tragicomedy Horace and Pete, which recently won a Peabody award.
    Yohana Desta, VanityFair.com, 1 May 2017
  • 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 11-season tragicomedy ended on Sunday night with almost no closure, even as the episodes prior to the finale led viewers to believe everything would more or less wrap up.
    BostonGlobe.com, 12 Apr. 2021
  • This poignant tragicomedy, about a beloved children’s television host (Jim Carrey) who strains to keep his brand intact as his personal life crumbles, has plenty of life left in it.
    Sara Aridi, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2020
  • That For You is pretty much the quintessential tragicomedy.
    Marah Eakin, WIRED, 28 Dec. 2022
  • There are three things fashion people love: eccentrics, glamour, and tragicomedy – that perverse play of humor and sadness so loved in the British (and camp) comedy cannon that we Americans can't get enough of.
    refinery29.com, 3 July 2018
  • This series impeccably mixes the funny with the tragic in life and in an effort to label it terms such as dramedy, tragicomedy and traumedy have been used.
    Dana Feldman, Forbes, 23 June 2021
  • The film is a tragicomedy following the family of a teenage YouTuber who posts an irreverent video lampooning a megachurch pastor in defense of his gay twin brother.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 15 Mar. 2024
  • In a bit of tragicomedy typical of this novel, Anjum becomes a media celebrity, a favorite of journalists and filmmakers who want to expose the plight of hijras.
    Ron Charles, The Denver Post, 31 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tragicomedy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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