Is "unironically" a valid word?

Every spell checker I have, both ones that automatically spell check and those run after finishing a document or draft, seems to consider the word unironically to be incorrect. I have heard the word used in conversation plenty, and have seen it written or typed on at least several occasions that I recall immediately. Also, it feels natural to use it in a sentence, and its meaning appears relatively obvious at least as far as I'm concerned.

I looked it up online to find out that: at the very least, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster consider it to be a valid word. I've also discovered that my spell checkers are bothered by the word unironic, but not of course by the word ironic. I feel fairly confident that unironic must be a word... However, it's also completely possible I'm simply mistaken.

So, what's the verdict English Language Stack Exchange Community? Is it a word that is just being incorrectly flagged, or is it commonly used but not technically valid?

Solution 1:

Here is an Ngram chart of usage frequency for unironically for the period 1900–2019:

As the chart indicates, the word has been in detectable use for more than 100 years and has grown significantly more common during the period since the year 2000 than it was before that.

A Google Books search for unironically finds a small swarm of early occurrences in the period 1921–1923. From Arnold Bennett, "Mr. Prohack," in The Delineator (November 1921):

"You will get used to it, Arthur," said Sir Paul indulgently but not unironically. "You're in a nervous state and your judgment's warped. Now, I never even heard your famous clock strike ten."

From Edmund Blunden, The Bonadventure: A Random Journal of an Atlantic Holiday (1923):

Bicker, the editor, instead of reviewing his admired literature in his journal, lengthened breakfast by doing so there viva voce. He was all for Bœotian situations, and, on occasion, his cold re-dishing was tactfully ended by a relief conversation on religion, the keynote of which was in the unironically meant remark: "He was darned religious, but he was a darned good man."

And from Richard Curle, Into the East: Notes on Burma and Malaya (1923):

The town [Singapore], like a camel in the desert, was living on its hump, was living on hope. Its huge fabric reminded one unironically of a whited sepulchre; it is the product of trade and without trade it is a mere shell. Well, of course, not altogether, because its geographical position is its ultimate value, but to a large extent. Singapore was urgently in need of the reviving breath of industry.

The sense of the term is in each case, simply, "not ironically"—that is, without any awareness of or intention to express a contrast or incongruousness between a thing said and the thing or situation about which it was said.

Bennett and Blunden were Englishmen and Curle was a Scot, so it may be that the word first came into literary use in Great Britain. Be that as it may, the rise of unironically did not begin in earnest until the mid-1970s, after which it seems to have made considerable progress into mainstream written usage.

Even so, it bears noticing that a Google Ngram chart mapping the frequency of unironically (blue line) against the frequency of ironically (red line) for the period 1900–2019 suggests that the latter has made far more progress in frequency of usage over the past half-century than the former has:

In any event, unironically is certainly a word in good standing (outside the precincts of Microsoft Word, anyway), with a clear meaning and consistent usage over many decades to support it. Who (besides Microsoft) could ask for anything more?

Solution 2:

Yes, it's a real word insomuch as most dictionaries include it. However, it's worth noting that inclusion in a dictionary isn't really the standard for what is a "real" English word. As a reformed prescriptivist, I definitely understand why most people believe that's the case, but really it is much more a matter of what @Toby Speight mentioned in a comment on the OP - can it be used to communicate effectively to another native English speaker? Words become words not by virtue of being added to a dictionary, but by being used by English speaking people.

A notable discourse on this is Kory Stamper's Word by Word. Stamper is a Lexicographer for Merriam-Webster and while the book sounds like it should be horribly dry, it's actually an interesting read. A big part of what a lexicographer does is find words in use and adds them to the dictionary. But said words are already in common usage before they find their way into the dictionary.