parody

English

Etymology

From Latin parōdia, from Ancient Greek παρῳδία (parōidía, “parody”), from παρά (pará, “besides”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹədi/, /ˈpɛɹədi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹədi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: par‧o‧dy

Noun

parody (countable and uncountable, plural parodies)

1. A work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony.

   Coordinate term: send-up

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The lively parody which he wrote […] was received with great applause.

2. (countable, archaic) A popular maxim, adage, or proverb.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with parity.

Derived terms

• parody mass

 

Translations

expression making fun of something else

• Albanian: parodi (sq) f
• Arabic: مُحَاكَاة سَاخِرَة f (muḥākāh sāḵira)
• Armenian: պարոդիա (hy) (parodia)
• Azerbaijani: parodiya
• Basque: parodia
• Belarusian: паро́дыя f (paródyja)
• Bulgarian: паро́дия (bg) f (paródija)
• Catalan: paròdia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戲仿／戏仿 (zh) (xìfǎng), 諧仿／谐仿 (xiéfǎng), 反串 (zh) (fǎnchuàn)

• Czech: parodie f
• Danish: parodi (da) c
• Dutch: parodie (nl) f
• Esperanto: parodio
• Estonian: paroodia
• Finnish: parodia (fi)
• French: parodie (fr) f
• Galician: parodia (gl) f
• Georgian: პაროდია (ṗarodia)
• German: Parodie (de) f
• Greek: παρωδία (el) f (parodía)
• Hebrew: פָּרוֹדְיָה (he) (paródya)
• Hindi: व्यंग्य (hi) m (vyaṅgya), हास्यानुकृति f (hāsyānukŕti), भड़ौआ (bhaṛauā)
• Hungarian: paródia (hu)
• Icelandic: skopstæling f
• Ido: parodio (io)
• Japanese: パロディ (parodi)
• Kazakh: пародия (parodiä)
• Korean: 패러디 (ko) (paereodi)
• Kyrgyz: пародия (parodiya)
• Latvian: parodija f
• Lithuanian: parodija (lt) f
• Macedonian: пародија f (parodija)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: parodi (no) m

  Nynorsk: parodi m

• Polish: parodia (pl) f
• Portuguese: paródia (pt)
• Romanian: parodie (ro) f
• Russian: паро́дия (ru) f (paródija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: па̀ро̄дија f

  Roman: pàrōdija (sh) f

• Slovak: paródia f
• Slovene: parodija f
• Spanish: parodia (es) f
• Swedish: parodi (sv) c
• Tagalog: gayambalbal
• Tajik: пародия (parodiya)
• Turkish: parodi (tr)
• Ukrainian: паро́дія (uk) f (paródija)
• Uzbek: parodiya (uz)
• Yiddish: פּאַראָדיע f (parodye)

Verb

parody (third-person singular simple present parodies, present participle parodying, simple past and past participle parodied)

1. (transitive) To make a parody of something.

   The comedy movie parodied the entire Western genre.

Usage notes

Often confused with satire, which agitates for social change using humor.

Translations

to make a parody of something

• Bulgarian: пародирам (bg) (parodiram)
• Catalan: parodiar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戲仿／戏仿 (zh) (xìfǎng), 諧仿／谐仿 (xiéfǎng)

• Czech: parodovat
• Danish: parodiere
• Dutch: parodiëren (nl)
• Esperanto: parodii
• Finnish: parodioida (fi)
• French: parodier (fr)
• Galician: parodiar (gl)
• German: parodieren (de)
• Greek: παρωδώ (el) (parodó)
• Hungarian: parodizál (hu), kifiguráz (hu)
• Italian: parodiare
• Polish: parodiować (pl)
• Portuguese: parodiar (pt)
• Russian: пароди́ровать (ru) impf (parodírovatʹ), спароди́ровать (ru) pf (sparodírovatʹ)
• Spanish: parodiar (es)
• Swedish: parodiera (sv)
• Thai: ล้อเลียน (th) (lɔ́ɔ-liian)

See also

• satire, satirize
• pastiche
• send up, sendup, send-up
• spoof
• take off, takeoff

Further reading

• “parody”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “parody”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “parody”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.