paradox
paradox — noun
1. a statement, person, or situation that combines two qualities or ideas which app
a statement, person, or situation that combines two qualities or ideas which appear to clash, yet on closer thought either turns out to be true or points to a deeper truth — for example, the saying 'less is more', or a CEO who builds a calendar app while constantly running out of time.
Maya pointed out the paradox that her brother spent hours on a calendar app yet was always late.
paradox + that-clause for stating a contradictory truth
Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise puzzled the philosophy class for a whole afternoon.
named famous paradoxes: Zeno's, Liar, Grandfather
The Liar Paradox arises when a person says, 'This sentence is false.'
Marcus seemed a walking paradox: a peace activist who openly supported the war in his hometown.
When Daiwa Bank gave its Osaka tellers new computers in 1995, the productivity paradox struck: nobody worked faster.
- contradiction
any clash of ideas; a paradox is a contradiction that still seems somehow true
- irony
an outcome that mocks expectation; less about logical self-contradiction
- oxymoron
a two-word figure of speech (bittersweet, deafening silence); much smaller in scale than a paradox
- puzzle
broader and more neutral; lacks the 'seemingly impossible yet true' flavour
文法句型
paradox + that-clause
the paradox of + noun
用法筆記
Often takes a that-clause or 'the paradox of + noun phrase' to introduce the contradictory content. Frequently appears in fixed names of famous puzzles (the Liar Paradox, Zeno's paradox, the Grandfather paradox) and in coined phrases for real-world tensions (the productivity paradox, the happiness paradox).