oxymoron oxymoron
 ox-y-mo'-ron rom Gk. oxy, "sharp" and moros, "dull"
acutifatuum
wise-folly

Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox.
 
Examples
 

          ...Yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe.
                          —Milton, Paradise Lost 1.62-64

The Sounds of Silence

Festina lente (make haste slowly).

Related Figures
 

 
  Sources:


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University
Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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