Log in or Sign up
  1. oxymoron love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In rhetoric, a figure consisting in adding to a word an epithet or qualification apparently contradictory; in general, close connection of two words seemingly opposed to each other (as, cruel kindness; to make haste slowly); an expression made epigrammatic or pointed by seeming self-contradictory.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.
  2. n. general A contradiction in terms.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Rhet.) A figure in which an epithet of a contrary signification is added to a word; e. g., cruel kindness; laborious idleness.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')

Etymologies

  1. From 5th century Latin oxymoron, from Ancient Greek ὀξύς (oxus, "sharp") (English oxy-, as in oxygen) + μωρός (mōros, "dull") (English moron ("stupid person")). Literally “sharp-dull”, itself an oxymoron, hence autological; compare sophomore (literally "wise fool"), influenced by similar analysis. The compound form *ὀξύμωρον (oxumōron) is not found in the extant Greek sources. (Wiktionary)
  2. Greek oxumōron, from neuter of oxumōros, pointedly foolish : oxus, sharp; see oxygen + mōros, foolish, dull. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “You spend 50 bucks for a tank of gas just to go hunt and you miss that big one, so how oxymoron is that!”

    Best distance to practice shooting a compound bow.

  • “Early on' petroleum was unrestricted -- a social-positioning free-for-all including crimes such as fraud and violence such as homicide, and all of it called, (in oxymoron disguise) a 'free market.”

    No Snickers bars? Blame Peak Oil (Jack Bog's Blog)

  • “Indeed, our little national anthem has inspired VANOC CEO John Furlong to apply for the intellectual property rights to this refrain, a rather strange oxymoron from a man who stood on the shoulders of giants to rip off the official song representing 33 million souls:”

    2008 September 26 « Unambiguously Ambidextrous

  • “In practice, however, the basic oxymoron is not a very common form of the pataphysical quirk, possibly because we're often able to apply simple transformations to these sort of oxymorons, reinterpret them as metaphoric sense or bad writing rather than nonsense.”

    Notes on Strange Fiction: The Pataphysical Quirk

  • “Okaayyy – an oxymoron is basically expressing two separate thoughts or ideas that are in direct conflict with each other.”

    Waving your flag « BuzzMachine

  • “But where he sees Keats stumbling, caught and bewildered in oxymoron, I read a melodious plot: Keats has set up the line up to woo us with the oxymoron Wasserman discerns; then, at the line's turn, pivots its information into the human differential.”

    The Know of Not to Know It: My Returns to Reading and Teaching Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' -

  • “The foolish creation of the most learned man of his time, she is the literal embodiment of the word oxymoron, and in her idiotic wisdom she represents the finest flowering of that fusion of Italian humanistic thought and northern piety which has been called”

    WISDOM OF THE FOOL

  • “Google Music, the search giant's cloud music service, has been labelled an 'oxymoron' by the outgoing Warner Music Group, chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.”

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph

  • “If asked for the definition of the word oxymoron, "gourmet Mexican" might do it.”

    Evening Standard - Home

  • “The device has now become so common that the word oxymoron has come to mean this form of humor, which is entirely unrelated to the original meaning of the word.”

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. figure
  1. trope
  1. image
  1. figure of speech

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. experience
  2. kinesthesis
  3. saber-rattling
  4. hanky-panky
  1. multilateralism
  2. hundred-mile-an-hour
  3. courtiership
  4. wheni
  1. humouring
  2. peacemaking
  3. was
  4. pre-made
  1. re-education
  2. uppermost
  3. stanchness
  4. illogic
  1. face-about
  2. undertunic
  3. conxict
  4. mobius

tags (8)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. fun
  1. writing
  1. speech
  1. favorite
  1. figure of speech
  1. vcvcvcvc
  1. rhetorical device
  1. paradox

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

tagging (5)

Words tagged ‘oxymoron’

  1. Oxymoron
  1. compassionate conservatism
  1. honest politician
  1. new york friendship
  1. stripper's dressing room

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘oxymoron’.

More lists containing ‘oxymoron’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • fbharjo dripdry drip-dry?
    bully? May 28, 2012

  • kgashok Can you think of a word that is both an oxymoron and a contranym? May 28, 2012

  • oroboros A baby with alphabet blocks is an oxymoron? Oct 24, 2010

  • fbharjo I concur. Stressing the second syllable sounds better Aug 28, 2010

  • Telofy Me likes it.

    Yes, the main stress in oxymoron is on the third syllable, however, she’s pretty. QED. (It’s called proof by pulchritude.)

    In moroxy I would rather stress the second, perhaps the first syllable. Is it your coinage? If so, what is your decree? Aug 28, 2010

  • fbharjo I prefer moroxy dull-sharp instead of oxymoron sharp-dull. It captures the sensation of the self-contradiction better. And the stress is on the third syllable. Aug 28, 2010

  • Telofy At university, a fellow English student remarked that she preferred a more German-ish pronunciation with the main stress on the second syllable. I’d like to know what Chelster thinks about that. :-) Aug 28, 2010

  • TechStar Warren Blumenfeld wrote the defining book on oxymorons. In his book, Jumbo Shrimp, he pointed out that an oxymoron uses contradictory words to describe something in a way that makes perfect sense. A combination of opposite words that do not make any sense is not an oxymoron. He also favored an alternate pronunciation of oxymoron. I have supplied this pronunciation under my name. Mar 29, 2009

  • rolig Only today did it occur to me how oxymoronic this is (not to mention just plain moronic): the moral majority. Jul 20, 2008

  • johnmperry Here's one I saw the other day: gourmet burger Jul 20, 2008

  • muamor Anarchy Rules! Mar 4, 2008

  • reesetee Ah, that appears on one of my lists (appropriately titled "Jumbo Shrimp"). Dec 8, 2007

  • chained_bear jumbo shrimp always struck me as an odd pair. Dec 8, 2007

  • misterpolly I like friendly fire (killed by...) in the same category as Military Intelligence, intelligent bombs. Dec 7, 2007

  • born2badored constant-change, meaning dynamic Dec 6, 2006

Tweets

Looking for tweets for oxymoron.

‘oxymoron’ has been looked up 8229 times, loved by 16 people, added to 99 lists, commented on 15 times, and has a Scrabble score of 20.