Polar Games
Guide

Oxymoron, antithesis and paradox examples

What an oxymoron, an antithesis and a paradox are, how to tell them apart, easy examples of each and some famous logical paradoxes.

By Polarzinho ·

Polarzinho sitting on the grass, half the scene in daytime sun and half under the moon and stars, holding an ice cube with a tiny flame

I am a small panda with a giant appetite. That is antithesis. I am a tiny giant. That is an oxymoron. These three figures of speech get mixed up all the time, so let us sort them out.

Oxymoron, antithesis and paradox all play with opposite ideas, but in different ways.

Play Letter River Play Stop!

Oxymoron: opposites glued together

An oxymoron puts two contradictory words side by side, usually an adjective and a noun.

  • Deafening silence
  • Jumbo shrimp
  • Bittersweet
  • Open secret
  • Seriously funny
  • Original copy
  • Small crowd
  • Awfully good

Antithesis: opposites in balance

Antithesis places contrasting ideas next to each other, often in a balanced sentence.

  • "Speech is silver, silence is golden."
  • "To err is human, to forgive divine." (Alexander Pope)
  • "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong)
  • Easy to learn, hard to master.

Paradox: opposites that still make sense

A paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself but reveals a truth.

  • Less is more.
  • "I must be cruel only to be kind." (Shakespeare, Hamlet)
  • The more you learn, the more you realize you do not know.
  • Sometimes losing is winning.

Famous logical paradoxes

  • The liar paradox: "This sentence is false." If it is true, it is false; if it is false, it is true.
  • The ship of Theseus: if you replace every part of a ship one by one, is it still the same ship?
  • The grandfather paradox: if a time traveler stopped their grandparents from meeting, how could they have been born?
  • Achilles and the tortoise (Zeno): if the tortoise starts ahead, Achilles must first reach where it was, but by then it has moved on.

The blog also has posts on figurative language, metaphors, hyperbole, euphemism and pleonasm.

Practice by playing

In Stop!, the quick category game, speed is your friend and your enemy: writing fast earns points but makes you slip up. A true paradox.

Stop! home screen with the options to play with the crowd or create a room with friends

PolarzinhoIn Stop! I am a losing winner: I win the round and lose the letter.

Stop!: play with the crowd or create a room with friends.

And in Letter River, every clue is vocabulary practice.

Letter River letter board next to the list of clues, with a river and mountains behind

PolarzinhoThe otter in Letter River has a busy calm: always relaxed, always swimming.

Letter River: the letter board and the clues beside it.

FAQ

What is the difference between an oxymoron and a paradox?

An oxymoron is two opposite words together ("deafening silence"). A paradox is a whole statement that seems contradictory ("less is more").

Is "jumbo shrimp" an oxymoron?

Yes: "jumbo" means huge and "shrimp" suggests something small.

What is an example of antithesis?

"Easy to learn, hard to master" puts two opposite ideas side by side.

Your turn

Sort these: "a quiet storm", "some win, some lose" and "the faster I go, the slower I get there".

Play Letter River Play Stop!