An oxymoron is a figure of speech, typically including one or two words, in which contradictory terms appear side by side. This contradiction is known as a paradox. Writers and poets have used it as a literary device to describe life’s conflicts and incongruities. In speech, oxymorons can convey a sense of humor, irony, or sarcasm.
100 Examples of Oxymorons
- absent presence (Sidney 1591)
- alone together
- awful good
- beggarly riches (Donne 1624)
- bittersweet
- brisk vacancy (Ashbery 1975)
- cheerful pessimist
- civil war
- clearly misunderstood
- comfortable misery (Koontz 2001)
- conspicuous absence
- cool passion
- crash landing
- cruel kindness
- darkness visible (Milton 1667)
- deafening silence
- deceptively honest
- definite maybe
- deliberate speed
- devout atheist
- dull roar
- eloquent silence
- even odds
- exact estimate
- extinct life
- falsely true (Tennyson 1862)
- festive tranquility
- found missing
- freezer burn
- friendly takeover
- genuine imitation
- good grief
- growing smaller
- guest host
- historical present
- humane slaughter
- icy hot
- idiot savant
- ill health
- impossible solution
- intense apathy
- joyful sadness
- jumbo shrimp
- larger half
- lascivious grace (Shakespeare 1609)
- lead balloon
- liquid marble (Jonson 1601)
- living dead
- living end
- living sacrifices
- loosely sealed
- loud whisper
- loyal opposition
- magic realism
- melancholy merriment (Byron 1819)
- militant pacifist
- minor miracle
- negative growth
- negative income
- old news
- one-man band
- only choice
- openly deceptive
- open secret
- original copy
- overbearingly modest
- paper tablecloth
- paper towel
- peaceful conquest
- plastic glasses
- plastic silverware
- poor health
- pretty ugly
- properly ridiculous
- random order
- recorded live
- resident alien
- sad smile
- same difference
- scalding coolness (Hemingway 1940)
- seriously funny
- shrewd dumbness
- silent scream
- small crowd
- soft rock
- “The Sound of Silence” (Simon 1965)
- static flow
- steel wool
- student teacher
- “sweet sorrow” (Shakespeare 1595)
- terribly good
- theoretical experience
- transparent night (Whitman 1865)
- true fiction
- unbiased opinion
- unconscious awareness
- upward fall
- wise fool
- working vacation
