What's the difference between cynicism and sarcasm?

Cynicism


Definition:

  • (n.) The doctrine of the Cynics; the quality of being cynical; the mental state, opinions, or conduct, of a cynic; morose and contemptuous views and opinions.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Still, cynics might say they can identify at least one reason it all might fail: namely form.
  • (2) But he won’t call.” Allardyce is also cynical about an offer from Swansea to compensate around 300 Sunderland fans who had booked trips to Wales before the date change.
  • (3) And it was here, several years later, that I came looking for an answer to a question which has baffled many cynical film critics: how did a low-key prison drama, which was considered a box-office flop on its initial release, become one of the most popular movies of all time?
  • (4) I have not met someone as cynical as Museveni,” Besigye told a rally in eastern Uganda in January.
  • (5) The aim of this study was to determine how individual differences in cynical hostility and defensiveness interacted with situational demands to affect cardiovascular responses in a natural setting.
  • (6) It goes on: "In a reality of ongoing occupation, of solid cynicism and meanness, each and every one of us bears the moral obligation to try to relieve the suffering, do something to bend back the occupation's giant, cruel hand."
  • (7) The present study extended this previous research by evaluating urinary cortisol excretion during routine daily activities in a sample of high and low cynically hostile young men.
  • (8) If Deng is a 21st-century Becky Sharp, we should recall that for all her cynicism, Thackeray's heroine also possessed an indomitable spirit.
  • (9) Oil companies are sponsoring the arts around the world on an “epidemic” scale as a cynical PR strategy to improve their reputation, a new book argues.
  • (10) The British ambassador to Ukraine , Simon Smith, called Yanukovych's decision "an egregious piece of cynicism".
  • (11) Cynics will tell you Camra’s membership know all about identity crises – once the rebels of the 1970s, they’re now mostly older dads and grandads – purists upholding Camra’s “cask only” creed as sacred.
  • (12) The swift action of the US in withdrawing funding is likely to increase cynicism among Palestinians about the credibility of the US as a mediator between them and the Israelis.
  • (13) Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrat campaign manager, accused Cameron of using the Greens to duck TV debates, adding: “Not since the photos of Cameron driving huskies have green issues been so cynically harnessed to Tory interest.” The broadcasters have proposed three one-hour TV debates, the first involving the Ukip, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative leaders, the second Lib Dem, Labour and Tory.
  • (14) Police officers resigned and politicians were embarrassed as the scandal erupted, but Scotland Yard – with dazzling cynicism – has reacted by trying to silence the kind of police whistleblowers who helped to expose the failures of their leaders; and ambitious politicians continue to dine with Rupert Murdoch.
  • (15) I'm always initially very cynical: who are these people, they look ridiculous.'
  • (16) To somehow use the upcoming 2012 Olympics as a reason to do this is, in my opinion, unforgivably cynical.
  • (17) Serving on the government's Renewables Advisory Board from 2003 to 2006, I witnessed what cynics could easily have mistaken for a deliberate campaign of delay, obfuscation, and the parking, if not torpedoing, of good ideas coming from industry members of the board."
  • (18) Swansea, for whom Jefferson Montero was outstanding, levelled when Gylfi Sigurdsson curled a sublime 25-yard free-kick into the top corner, after Kieran Gibbs had cynically brought down Modou Barrow, the Swansea substitute.
  • (19) Cynics would say it has taken the scientific community a long time to achieve very little progress in our understanding of HIV-mediated CNS damage.
  • (20) The aid cynics attacking the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on development assistance should take note.

Sarcasm


Definition:

  • (n.) A keen, reproachful expression; a satirical remark uttered with some degree of scorn or contempt; a taunt; a gibe; a cutting jest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I relayed all this depressing news to Prof Ashton, who replied with spirited sarcasm, "I've put forward my idea!
  • (2) Lendl and Mauresmo are former world No1s but he is an unsmiling martinet with a cutting line in sarcasm, she a mentor who chooses her words like a schoolteacher.
  • (3) But by actually writing the word "innocent", Tugendhat was able to judge her stage directions to be the opposite, as the English are known for their sarcasm.
  • (4) Mail them to knowledge@theguardian.com , marked Curb Your Sarcasm.
  • (5) April 14, 2014 As the sarcasm-laden ribbing entered its second day, the minerals council began to elicit some sympathy for its horribly backfiring campaign.
  • (6) Meanwhile traders and global companies are forecasting "business as usual", Reuters reports: [Rosneft head] Igor Sechin himself responded to being penalised for the Ukraine policies of his friend President Vladimir Putin with sarcasm, calling it "an appreciation of our efficiency".
  • (7) The inference of sarcasm from the refreshingly rebellious wife of the Speaker could only be drawn in the full knowledge that Britons run on such humour like midwesterns do corn oil.
  • (8) Thus recently I've been scouring friends' timelines looking to add unwelcome sarcasm and scorn to all the gaiety, enthusiasm and affection.
  • (9) Sarcasm is a useful weapon because it’s not common in Thai humour.
  • (10) Sarcasm is not a defense but a form of aggressive discharge.
  • (11) He criticised Obama for the sarcasm he displayed over the smaller navy.
  • (12) More from the walking monument to sarcasm that is Tom Waterhouse: "When I've bought my chalet later this year you'd be most welcome to rent it at a very reasonable rate for a few weeks so you can write that great novel you must as a journalist be constantly dreaming of unleashing on an unsuspecting public."
  • (13) Read more Corbyn appeared to be wearying of the relentless media attention and came close to sarcasm.
  • (14) Responding to a pledge by Romney to increase military spending and a complaint that the navy had fewer ships, Obama resorted to heavy sarcasm.
  • (15) 'The sentences,' wrote Larissa MacFarquhar in a brilliant New Yorker profile of Chomsky 10 years ago, 'are accusations of guilt, but not from a position of innocence or hope for something better: Chomsky's sarcasm is the scowl of a fallen world, the sneer of hell's veteran to its appalled naifs' – and thus, in an odd way, static and ungenerative.
  • (16) In his longest-running column, entitled For My Mother Bohemians, he relentlessly exposed the shortcomings of the political elite to the full force of his sarcasm by quoting their words back at them.
  • (17) The Curmudgeon Moans and has a great line in sarcasm.
  • (18) • Meet a student from... Greece: ‘UK lad culture was a surprise – and in Greece we don’t have pre-drinking’ • Meet a student from... France: ‘I miss the patisserie, boulangerie and steak - but France isn’t that far…’ • Meet a student from... Ireland: ‘I’m always subjected to atrocious Irish accents and jokes about drinking’ • Meet a student from... Hong Kong: ‘I surprisingly miss the heat, humidity and crowdedness of Hong Kong’ • Meet a student from... Germany: ‘I brought a meat hammer from Germany so I can make schnitzel’ • Meet a student from... Malaysia: ‘I miss how, in Malaysia, everything revolves around food’ • Meet a student from... the US: ‘As an American, it took me four months to catch on to British sarcasm’ • Meet a student from... Nigeria: ‘People sit around drinking tea, which isn’t common in Nigeria.
  • (19) The hypothesis that people of different races and sexes, having divergent temperaments and beliefs, will also show different factors involved in their attitudes toward death was not supported because the factors of escape, depressive-fear, mortality, and sarcasm were common to them all.
  • (20) January 19, 2014 7.03pm GMT Preamble So this year's AFC Championship Game match-up pits the New England Patriots against the Denver Broncos and I know what you're thinking, hey if only there were storylines for this game (searches in vain for a sarcasm font).