The rhetorical term oxymoron, made up of two Greek words meaning "sharp" and "dull," is itself oxymoronic.

As you probably remember from school, an oxymoron is a compressed paradox: a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. British writer Thomas Gibbons characterized the figure as "sense in the masquerade of folly."

The oxymoron has also been called "the show-off" figure, one that gives voice to life's inherent conflicts and incongruities.

"The true beauty of oxymorons," says Richard Watson Todd, "is that, unless we sit back and really think, we happily accept them as normal English." Todd illustrates his point in the following passage:

It was an open secret that the company had used a paid volunteer to test the plastic glasses. Although they were made using liquid gas technology and were an original copy that looked almost exactly like a more expensive brand, the volunteer thought that they were pretty ugly and that it would be simply impossible for the general public to accept them. On hearing this feedback, the company board was clearly confused and there was a deafening silence. This was a minor crisis and the only choice was to drop the product line.
_{(Much Ado About English. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2006)}

But then all of that may be old news to you.
Like other kinds of figurative language, oxymorons (or oxymora) are often found in literature. However, as shown by this list of 100 awfully good examples, oxymorons are also part of our everyday speech.

 

1. "absent presence"
   ^{(Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney)}
2. alone together
3. awful good
4. "beggarly riches"
   ^{(Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne)}
5. bitter sweet
6. "brisk vacancy"
   ^{("Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror" by John Ashbery)}
7. cheerful pessimist
8. civil war
9. clearly misunderstood
10. "comfortable misery"
    ^{(One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz)}
11. conspicuous absence
12. cool passion
13. crash landing
14. cruel kindness
15. "darkness visible"
    ^{(Paradise Lost by John Milton)}
16. deafening silence
17. deceptively honest
18. definite maybe
19. deliberate speed
20. devout atheist
21. dull roar
22. eloquent silence
23. even odds
24. exact estimate
25. extinct life
26. "falsely true"
    ^{(Lancelot and Elaine by Lord Tennyson)}
27. festive tranquility
28. found missing
29. freezer burn
30. friendly takeover
31. genuine imitation
32. good grief
33. growing smaller
34. guest host
35. historical present
36. humane slaughter
37. icy hot
38. idiot savant
39. ill health
40. impossible solution
41. intense apathy
42. joyful sadness
43. jumbo shrimp
44. larger half
45. "lascivious grace"
    ^{(Sonnet 40 by William Shakespeare)}
46. lead balloon
47. "liquid marble"
    ^{(Poetaster by Ben Jonson)}
48. living dead
49. living end
50. living sacrifices
51. loosely sealed
52. loud whisper
53. loyal opposition
54. magic realism
55. "melancholy merriment"
    ^{(Don Juan by Lord Byron)}
56. militant pacifist
57. minor miracle
58. negative growth
59. negative income
60. old news
61. one-man band
62. only choice
63. openly deceptive
64. open secret
65. original copy
66. overbearingly modest
67. paper tablecloth
68. paper towel
69. peaceful conquest
70. plastic glasses
71. plastic silverware
72. poor health
73. pretty ugly
74. properly ridiculous
75. random order
76. recorded live
77. resident alien
78. sad smile
79. same difference
80. "scalding coolness"
    ^{(For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway)}
81. seriously funny
82. shrewd dumbness
83. silent scream
84. small crowd
85. soft rock
86. "The Sound of Silence"
    ^{(song by Paul Simon)}
87. static flow
88. steel wool
89. student teacher
90. "sweet sorrow"
    ^{(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)}
91. terribly good
92. theoretical experience
93. "transparent night"
    ^{("When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d" by Walt Whitman)}
94. true fiction
95. True Lies
    ^{(movie directed by James Cameron)}
96. unbiased opinion
97. unconscious awareness
98. upward fall
99. wise fool
100. working vacation

For extensive examples of other figures of speech, visit the following pages:

• Love Is a Metaphor: 99 Metaphors of Love
• The Ten Greatest Hyperboles of All Time
• 100 Sweet Similes