How to Use unironic in a Sentence

unironic

adjective
  • For all this self-awareness, Bleachers is an unironic rock band.
    — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 16 May 2022
  • Men in flapping long coats clutched unironic fedoras against a biting wind.
    — Daniel Lee, WSJ, 21 Nov. 2018
  • The navel-gazing and unironic self-obsession is — for old people — kind of amazing.
    — John Adamian, courant.com, 16 Dec. 2017
  • There is also an unironic robot that befriends the main character.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 31 May 2024
  • But actually the sort of method muscle aspect was to make an unironic romance film.
    — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Zhao seems a far cry from the filmmaker who’d make such a rigorous, pointedly unironic film.
    — John Powers, Vogue, 22 Mar. 2018
  • What is surprising is just how peppy and patently unironic Colors is.
    — Philly.com, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Thundercat's unironic approach to music is endearing at a time when everything is done with a smirk.
    — Matt Miller, Esquire, 9 June 2017
  • The unironic embrace of something that feels old and ethereal also fits right in with the spirit of TikTok.
    — Angela Watercutter, Wired, 14 Jan. 2021
  • Linklater confessed surprise at the unironic affection with which younger audiences embraced the movie and its trappings.
    — Bruce Handy, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2023
  • What’s moving, in the end, is the novel’s sheer enthusiasm for the act of making art, which seems to be the only thing spoken about with unironic passion.
    — Chelsea Leu, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2025
  • There’s something admirable and disarming about an up-and-coming novelist being so gushy, boyish and unironic.
    — Ben Downing, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2018
  • Scroll through enough of it, and the lines between jokey provocation and unironic aspiration become difficult to discern.
    — Charles Homans, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2025
  • In which case, his mission was definitely accomplished, the problem being that the line felt so unironic as to contradict what had come before.
    — James Walton, The New York Review of Books, 21 Sep. 2022
  • For the youngest boys and girls, an indoor tent is a reasonable (and totally unironic) way to introduce them to the notion of outdoor adventure.
    — The Editors, Field & Stream, 15 Apr. 2020
  • The romantic songs Jordan and Laura used to parody are now an unironic part of the wedding rotation.
    — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Cardigans went from unironic old-man garb to ultra-hip Kurt Cobain rock ‘n’ roll clothing to, today, a legit fashion choice for cats of all ages, and that means you.
    — Josh Max, Forbes, 9 June 2022
  • Following the usual pattern on Twitter, apparently unironic uses of the meme were quickly replaced by snark.
    — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 4 Feb. 2022
  • All the while, players must endure listening to the characters express their travails in language that is gracelessly straightforward and unironic.
    — Washington Post, 11 July 2019
  • This family-friendly approach — bright, broad, unironic — aligns with the musical’s legacy as a VHS favorite, but even kids could use help knowing where to look.
    — Naveen Kumar, Variety, 18 Apr. 2024
  • There are unironic kitsch offerings — the sea shells evoke the grandmotherly toilets of your past — from Daniels Baths, a company that also makes the cousin to the funky toilet seat, the fuzzy toilet-seat cover.
    — Nora Taylor, Curbed, 2 Jan. 2024
  • In an unprecedented breach of law and decency, the president is threatening to send federal forces to our city, in an unironic attempt to combat nonexistent lawlessness in Chicago.
    — Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025
  • But, in the unironic sense, Laufey does take a big step toward possibly becoming a screen goddess, of sorts, by having starred in a short film that may serve as a calling card for a possible move into film or TV roles.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 11 Apr. 2024
  • With her unfashionably unironic religious devotion, too, Flannery stands apart from the New York intellectuals.
    — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Once upon a time, Stephen King wrote a fairy tale, although the prolific author takes a third of this book, or around 200 pages, to make clear that the title of his latest opus is entirely, enjoyably unironic.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 7 Sep. 2022
  • Critics praised Kapoor’s work for continuing the formal explorations of modernist sculpture while also citing his capacity for unironic spiritual suggestiveness.
    — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2022
  • From the ’30s until well into the ’70s, high culture was generally portrayed by the media not dismissively but with unironic respect—and in such a way as to suggest that anyone with a public-school education could enjoy it.
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 14 July 2021
  • And the movie, with these two sexy people sparring for about 10 minutes, only to settle their differences over whiskey before a roaring fire in a snowbound cabin that looks like a vacation hideaway, has an unironic romance-novel baby-it’s-cold-outside vibe of old-school desert-island love.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 7 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unironic.' 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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