poetical justice
Syllables: po·et·ic·al jus·ticeUK/pəʊˌɛtɪkl̩ ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/US/poʊˌɛtɪk(ə)l ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/
poetical justice noun: the idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished.
Noun
poetical justice (uncountable)
- The idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished.
- For though historical Juſtice might reſt there; yet poetical Juſtice could not be ſo content. It vvould require that the ſatisfaction be compleat and full, e're the Malefactor goes off the Stage, and nothing left to God Almighty, and another VVorld.1678, Thomas Rymer, “The Tragedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy”, in The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin‘d […], London: […] Richard Tonson […], →OCLC, page 26
- Synonyms:
- poetic justice
- Synonym of poetic justice (“the fact of someone experiencing what they deserve for their actions, especially when this happens in an ironic manner”).
- Synonyms:
- poetic justice
Synonyms of poetical justice
Origin of poetical justice
From poetical + justice, coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer (c. 1643 – 1713) in the work The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin’d (1678): see the quotation.
Questions about poetical justice
- What does poetical justice mean?
- Poetical justice means the idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished.
- What part of speech is poetical justice?
- Poetical justice is a noun.
- How do you pronounce poetical justice?
- Poetical justice is pronounced /pəʊˌɛtɪkl̩ ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/ (UK).
Words near poetical justice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: poetical justice (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “poetical justice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poetical_justice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.