oxymoron

Definitions

1. A figure of speech in which two words or phrases with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.
   rhetoric
2. A contradiction in terms.
   broadly, proscribed, sometimes

Equivalents

Examples

“In Oxymoron jarring phrases join⟳ And terms opposed in harmony combine⟳.”

“For Theodor Adorno and his colleagues at the Frankfurt School who coined the term, "culture industry" was an oxymoron, intended to set⟳ up a critical contrast between the exploitative, repetitive mode of industrial mass production under capitalism and the associations of transformative power and aesthetico-moral transcendence that the concept of culture carried in the 1940s, when it still meant "high" culture.”

“During the past few years, some 200 class-action suits have⟳ been filed against food manufacturers, charging them with misuse of the adjective in marketing such edible oxymorons as “natural” Cheetos Puffs, “all-natural” Sun Chips, “all-natural” Naked Juice, “100 percent all-natural” Tyson chicken nuggets and so forth.”

““Stable inflation is an oxymoron because it means it’s not stable,” Shelton told CNN in a recent interview.”

CEFR level