What's the difference between derision and sarcasm?

Derision


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of deriding, or the state of being derided; mockery; scornful or contemptuous treatment which holds one up to ridicule.
  • (n.) An object of derision or scorn; a laughing-stock.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In fact the then president, Amadou Toumani Touré, known as "ATT" more out of derision than any sense of affection, was viewed as deeply corrupt and incapable of delivering the changes that Mali – still one of the five least-developed countries in the world – needed.
  • (2) Spanish football fans’ habit of waving white hankies tends to be derisive, signifying that they wish a hapless manager to be put out of their club’s misery.
  • (3) Waitrose evokes strong opinions: from sniffy derision about the supermarket's perceived airs and graces to expressions of joy from middle-class incomers when their gentrified area is blessed with a branch.
  • (4) Striker Gonzalo Higuaín was also the victim of fan derision when he came on to replace Karim Benzema in the second half, but Karanka insisted the Argentinian still has the backing of the club.
  • (5) And at the same time, speaking to black America, he branded Frazier an Uncle Tom, turning him into an object of derision and scorn.
  • (6) "I think 20 millisieverts is safe but I don't think it's good," said Itaru Watanabe of the education ministry, drawing howls of derision from the audience of participants.
  • (7) At which point – obviously – you reach the stubborn limits of the debate: from even the most supposedly imaginative Labour people as much as any Tories, such heresies would presumably be greeted with sneering derision.
  • (8) The launch of a Greene King “craft” range in 2013 brought angry howls of derision .
  • (9) He has been derided in these pages, but that derision is surpassed by the venomous hatred of the Daily Mail , which loathes the Cameron government in any case and particularly despised Mitchell in his previous job.
  • (10) And yet for someone confronting futility and derision, he appears remarkably cheerful.
  • (11) For reasons which are unfathomable Daniel became a target for derision, abuse and systematic cruelty."
  • (12) The autonomy of sport must be guaranteed.” After attracting derision for last week appearing to suggest that football could bring peace to the Crimea through the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Blatter returned to the subject in an otherwise low-key address.
  • (13) You couldn’t make it up, could you?” He hoots with derisive laughter.
  • (14) Another theory, which goes back in some form to ancient Greek philosophy, argues that all laughter is an expression of superiority: it is, in other words, always an aggressive response, a form of derision or mockery (laughing at, rather than with).
  • (15) The AU delegation - made up of South Africa , Uganda, Mauritania, Congo-Brazzaville and Mali - left the talks looking glum, without making a public comment and to the derisive shouts of the protesters outside the hotel.
  • (16) Gold swiftly retweeted the picture, prompting widespread derision, before explaining his error by claiming he had not realised it was an image of Antonio but while the winger was not offended, the label stuck.
  • (17) The explanation was greeted with derision by Kenyans on Twitter.
  • (18) He was very firm of purpose and yet a gay, exuberant, laughing man – gloom, cynicism, derision, despair, all peculiarly Irish devils, could not hold up their heads in his company.
  • (19) But the easy derision for those public figures probably grows from the sense that music, acting and even reporting all are easy pursuits.
  • (20) Additional information provided indicated that the most helpful categories of interventions included (1) validation; (2) advocacy; (3) empathic understanding; and (4) absence of derision or contempt.

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).