What is the difference between "sardonic" and "sarcastic"?

Solution 1:

@Manoochehr doesn't quite catch the meaning of sardonic. It means "grimly mocking or cynical." My Webster's gives its origin as

mid 17th cent.: from French sardonique, earlier sardonien, via Latin from Greek sardonios ‘of Sardinia,’ alteration of sardanios, used by Homer to describe bitter or scornful laughter.

It really doesn't carry the connotation of superiority or low opinion all by itself, although such feelings may accompany it.

Sardonic is in fact distinct from sarcastic but not by much, and many people use the two as if they are interchangeable, which, strictly speaking, they are not. Sardonic is more extreme and negative, and one can be sarcastic without being sardonic, and vice-versa.

Solution 2:

Examples:

Sarcastic: Well, this meeting with the boss should be hilarious.

Sardonic: Time for the monthly flogging by a twerp in a suit; I'll try not to get blood on the executive carpet.

Sardonic humour is mocking, but not necessarily sarcastic; sarcasm is stating a counterfactual, whereas sardony is a moment of grim poetic humour and may or may not contain counterfactuals. The above example uses melodrama rather than sarcasm as a device.

Solution 3:

According to Longman Dictionary of contemporary English:

• Sardonic: showing that you do not have a good opinion of someone or something, and feel that you are better than them

He looked at her with sardonic amusement.

• Sarcastic: saying things that are the opposite of what you mean, in order to make an unkind joke or to show that you are annoyed

Was she being sarcastic?

sarcastic remark/comment/question

He can’t help making sarcastic comments.

sarcastic manner/smile/laugh etc

‘I thought so,’ she said with a sarcastic smile.