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paradox

American  

[par-uh-doks] / ˈpær əˌdɒks /

noun

• paradoxes
  plural

1. a statement that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

   “Less is more” is a paradox often repeated in the arts and other fields.

   It is a paradox of healthy grief that we must work at it while surrendering to it.

2. any person, thing, or situation displaying an apparently contradictory nature.

   In the media the candidate was called a paradox—an unpopular populist.

   Synonyms:

   riddle, anomaly, puzzle

3. a self-contradictory and false statement, especially one arising from seemingly acceptable premises and correct logical argument.

4. time paradox.

5. Also called paradox illusion.  an optical illusion depicting an impossible object, often a two-dimensional figure that the viewer intuitively interprets as representing a three-dimensional one, but which cannot actually exist in three dimensions: brought to popular attention especially by the work of M. C. Escher.

6. Archaic. an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.

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paradox British  

/ ˈpærəˌdɒks /

noun

1. a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that is or may be true

   religious truths are often expressed in paradox

2. a self-contradictory proposition, such as I always tell lies

3. a person or thing exhibiting apparently contradictory characteristics

4. an opinion that conflicts with common belief

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paradox Cultural  

1. A statement that seems contradictory or absurd but is actually valid or true. According to one proverbial paradox, we must sometimes be cruel in order to be kind. Another form of paradox is a statement that truly is contradictory and yet follows logically from other statements that do not seem open to objection. If someone says, “I am lying,” for example, and we assume that his statement is true, it must be false. The paradox is that the statement “I am lying” is false if it is true.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• paradoxology
  noun
• paradoxal
  adjective
• paradoxical
  adjective
• paradoxically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• paradoxes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of paradox

First recorded in 1530–40; from Middle French paradoxe, from Latin paradoxum, from Greek parádoxon, noun use of neuter of parádoxos “contrary to expectation, unbelievable, beyond belief”; see para- ¹ ( def. ), orthodox ( def. )

Explanation

Here's a mind-bender: "This statement is false." If you think it's true, then it must be false, but if you think it's false, it must be true. Now that's a paradox! A paradox is a logical puzzler that contradicts itself in a baffling way. "This statement is false" is a classic example, known to logicians as "the liar's paradox." Paradoxical statements may seem completely self-contradictory, but they can be used to reveal deeper truths. When Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything except temptation," he used a paradox to highlight how easily we give in to tempting things while imagining that we can hold firm and resist them.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paradox paradoxes

But as the Lord of Darkness, the massively built ruler of the underworld in Ridley Scott’s underappreciated fantasy, Curry embodied a paradox.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

It was to address this paradox that the so-called Buddhist Lent campaign began in 2003, and last year it claimed more than eight million adherents.

From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026

In California, that looks like a paradox: The state has both a shrinking number of political battlegrounds and a handful of critical races that could help decide which party controls the House.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

He compares it with the so-called "obesity paradox" reported in some adult studies.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

It is the infinite that lies at the heart of Zeno’s paradox: Zeno had taken continuous motion and divided it into an infinite number of tiny steps.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

"Slavery and segregation have been strange paradoxes in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal."

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Mr. Miles tackles the brutal paradoxes of ecological conservation with unexpected comedic flair.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

Time-travel paradoxes rest on the false premise that events exist as revisitable locations.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2025

Leo highlighted the "outrageous paradoxes" by which enormous amounts of food go wasted in the world "while multitudes of people scramble to find something in the garbage to put in their mouths".

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025

And it is a history of the paradoxes posed by an innocent-looking number, rattling even this century’s brightest minds and threatening to unravel the whole framework of scientific thought.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• absurdity
• ambiguity
• anomaly
• enigma
• inconsistency
• mystery
• oddity