words like irony
 

An ironic situation give us a sort of feeling, right. An ironic stituation might be pro-lifers murdering doctors, to borrow from bill hicks, but it's more than just that, the irony is something we add to it, with all our meanings and things. Anyway, there are other situations that have something more to them then just what is happening. For instance, that reporter getting killed while covering a story on the most dangerous intersections that is talked about in the general forum. That isn't ironic, but it's like irony in that there is more to it than just what happened you know. What is the word for that, when something happens that is just too expected? Are there other kinds of situations like this, and other words like irony?

how about 'forshadowing'? often a character will say something that will turn out to be true later in a way not quite intended by the hapless character.

A self-fulfilled prophecy perhaps?

No, that is irony.

Irony has a definition that is more specific than that. What you write above is more a description of coincidence. If I remember correctly from high school English, there are three types of irony: situational, dramatic and verbal.

Situational: when something happens that you don't expect (and it usually seems unfair). See Gift of the Magi.

Dramatic: in literature, when someone says or does something that contrasts with the truth, but that person doesn't know it (and the audience does). Think Romeo killing himself because Juliet is dead (but she really isn't).

Verbal: when your literal meaning and your actual intention are not the same. "How wonderful it was to have rain on the day of our picnic!"

Shit, I thought it was a synonym for ferrous...

Supple Cow: Isn't that verbal irony sarcasm?

Sarcasm (at least by my 11th grade English teacher's definition) is defined by pointing out a flaw of human character using a caustic tone. The example I use above wouldn't be sarcastic because the rain wasn't a result of any flaw of human character, whereas it would be sarcastic to say, "I love it when my mother-in-law comes for a visit." (Assuming you don't get along with your mother-in-law ;))