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