Oxymoron

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Oxymoron \Ox`y*mo"ron\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ???, fr. ??? pointedly
     foolish; 'oxy`s sharp + mwro`s foolish.] (Rhet.)
     A figure in which an epithet of a contrary signification is
     added to a word; e. g., cruel kindness; laborious idleness.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  oxymoron
       n : conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')
       [also: {oxymora} (pl)]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  54 Moby Thesaurus words for "oxymoron":
     Gordian knot, absurdity, ambiguity, ambivalence, antinomy,
     asymmetry, crux, dilemma, disproportion, disproportionateness,
     enigma, equivocality, equivocation, heresy, heterodoxy,
     heterogeneity, hopelessness, impossibility, impossible,
     impossibleness, incoherence, incommensurability, incompatibility,
     inconceivability, incongruity, inconsistency, inconsonance, irony,
     irreconcilability, knot, knotty point, no chance, node, nodus,
     nonconformability, nonconformity, nonplus, paradox, perplexity,
     pons asinorum, poser, puzzle, quandary, self-contradiction, teaser,
     the impossible, unconformability, unconformity, unimaginability,
     unorthodoxy, unthinkability, vexed question, what cannot be,
     what cannot happen