- 1[countable] a person, thing or situation that has two opposite features and therefore seems strange He was a paradox—a loner who loved to chat to strangers. It is a curious paradox that professional comedians often have unhappy personal lives. Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectiveapparent, seeming, great, … verb + paradoxcreate, pose, present, … prepositionparadox about, paradox between, paradox in, … phrasesby a curious paradox See full entry
- 2[countable, uncountable] a statement containing two opposite ideas that make it seem impossible or unlikely, although it is probably true; the use of this in writing ‘More haste, less speed’ is a well-known paradox. It's a work full of paradox and ambiguity. Wordfinderimagealliteration, euphemism, figure of speech, hyperbole, image, litotes, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox See related entries: Linguistic devices Word Originmid 16th cent. (originally denoting a statement contrary to accepted opinion): via late Latin from Greek paradoxon ‘contrary (opinion)’, neuter adjective used as a noun, from para- ‘distinct from’ + doxa ‘opinion’.Extra examples The author tackles one of the deepest paradoxes of life. The facts pose something of a paradox. The paradox about time is that it seems to go faster as we become older and less active. the paradox between the real and the ideal the paradox in the relationship between creativity and psychosis It’s a curious paradox that professional comedians often have unhappy personal lives. Our study helps to resolve this apparent paradox. This is one of the paradoxes of contemporary political thinking.
paradox
nounBrE BrE//ˈpærədɒks//; NAmE NAmE//ˈpærədɑːks//
Linguistic devicesCheck pronunciation: paradox
