tragicomic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As in Samuel Beckett’s tragicomic theater and novels, Tarr’s movies, by turns funny and heartbreaking, dignify human struggle with an uncommon tenacity of vision and empathy.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026

But the tale he tells is tragicomic and never less than fascinating.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

Yet Harjo wrote Lee as a tragicomic figure perpetually floundering his way through his investigations and his life, taking his share of black eyes and deadly near-misses in the bargain.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2025

"Penn is a knockout tragicomic villain: it's his best performance in years," he wrote.

From BBC • Sep. 18, 2025

But this was after the tragicomic culmination had been reached, and the burnt rags of one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on a progress to Washington, like Cæsar’s body, arousing indignation where it came. 

From A Footnote to History Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa by Stevenson, Robert Louis