Oxymoron

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two words clash, being opposite in sense.

Oxymoron has one main structural model:

adjective + noun.

oxymora can also be classified into

• Direct oxymora – wherein the two words are antonyms, like orderly confusion, or inside out.
• Indirect oxymora – wherein the terms are not antonyms, but still contradict each other, like sure guess, or roaring silence.

Awfully nice Bad luck Big baby Born dead Brief speech Clearly confused Climb down Common difference Confirmed rumor Constant change Controlled chaos Current history Deliberate mistake Exact estimate Exact opposite Expressive silence Growing small Known secret Liquid gas Little giant

Examples of Oxymoron in Quotes

I can resist anything, except temptation. - Oscar Wilde Simplicity is not a simple thing. - Charles Chaplin The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep. - W.C. Fields Always be sincere, even when you don't mean it. - Irene Peter If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive. - Samuel Goldwyn

Examples in Literature

In literature, oxymora are often used to highlight a paradox. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for instance, has some of the best examples highlighting the same. 'O brawling love! O loving hate! . . . O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.'

Oxymoron in William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' 'I will bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night. I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady.'