noun, plural trag·i·com·e·dies.
- a dramatic or other literary composition combining elements of both tragedy and comedy.
- an incident, or series of incidents, of mixed tragic and comic character.
noun plural -dies
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- a drama in which aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found
- the dramatic genre of works of this kind
- an event or incident having both comic and tragic aspects
1570s, from Middle French tragicomédie (1540s), from Italian tragicommedia, from Late Latin tragicomoedia (c.325), contraction of tragicocomoedia (Plautus), from tragicus (see tragic) + comoedia (see comedy).