oxymoron

An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction. Examples would be "bittersweet" or "cruel kindness". As a rhetorical device, an oxymoron illustrates a point to communicate and reveal a paradox. A general meaning of "contradiction in terms" is recorded by the 1902 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

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An oxymoron is a figure of speech that puts together words or ideas with opposite meanings—like "bittersweet" or "cruel kindness"—creating a self-contradiction. Writers and speakers use oxymorons as a rhetorical tool to reveal a paradox and communicate a point in a striking or memorable way.

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Article

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Contents

Types and examples
"Comical oxymoron"
Antonym pairs
See also
References
External links

The term oxymoron is first recorded as Latinized Greek ', in Maurus Servius Honoratus (c. AD 400); it is derived from the Greek word ' "sharp, keen, pointed" and "dull, stupid, foolish"; as it were, "sharp-dull", "keenly stupid", or "pointedly foolish". The word oxymoron is autological, i.e., it is itself an example of an oxymoron. The Greek compound word '''', which would correspond to the Latin formation, does not appear in any Ancient Greek works prior to the formation of the Latin term.