paradox

noun par·a·dox \ ˈper-ə-ˌdäks , ˈpa-rə- \

|Updated on: 13 Aug 2018

Examples: paradox in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of paradox

1 : a tenet contrary to received opinion

2 a : a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true

b : a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true

c : an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises

3 : one (such as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases

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Examples of paradox in a Sentence

For the actors, the goal was a paradox: real emotion, produced on cue. —Claudia Roth Pierpont, New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2008
Again and again, he returns in his writing to the paradox of a woman who is superior to the men around her by virtue of social class though considered inferior to them on account of her gender. —Terry Eagleton, Harper's, November 2007
She was certainly far from understanding him completely; his meaning was not at all times obvious. It was hard to see what he meant for instance by speaking of his provincial side—which was exactly the side she would have taken him most to lack. Was it a harmless paradox, intended to puzzle her? or was it the last refinement of high culture? —Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1881
Mr. Guppy propounds for Mr. Smallweed's consideration the paradox that the more you drink the thirstier you are and reclines his head upon the window-sill in a state of hopeless languor. —Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1852-53
It is a paradox that computers need maintenance so often, since they are meant to save people time.
As an actor, he's a paradox—he loves being in the public eye but also deeply values and protects his privacy.
a novel full of paradox

Recent Examples of paradox from the Web

And so another Puerto Rican culinary legend has left a hole in the bicultural paradox of the diaspora’s need to feel connected in our world of ni de aqui, ni de alla.

— illyanna maisonet, San Francisco Chronicle, "The quest to preserve Puerto Rican culture with food," 21 May 2018
This transformation highlights an old paradox: Why does a reflection keep the upward part of an object up (and the downward part down) but interchange left and right?

— frank wilczek, WSJ, "The Peculiar Power of Nature’s Left and Right," 5 July 2018
Such is the confounding paradox inherent to many of today’s big tech companies, which promise private, free communication tools while monitoring everything their users do.

— jacob silverman, Longreads, "Private Telegram, Public Strife," 3 July 2018
The query is known around the world as the Fermi paradox.

— derek thompson, The Atlantic, "But, Seriously, Where Is Everybody?," 22 June 2018
The author grew up wriggling inside a paradox, struggling to become a self when so much of her was defined by her brilliant parent.

— david denby, The New Yorker, "Leonard Bernstein Through His Daughter’s Eyes," 16 June 2018
Agnesi was the first woman to write a mathematics textbook and to be appointed to a university chair in math, yet her life was marked by paradox.

— richard gunderman, Scientific American, "Maria Agnesi, the Greatest Female Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of," 16 May 2018
Flummoxed by this distressing paradox, my editor turned to me for answers.

— evelyn lamb, Smithsonian, "The Scientific Quest For the Perfect S’more," 13 July 2018
The paradox is that Merkel might be Italy’s best hope for achieving a comprehensive agreement on migration.

— alan crawford, Bloomberg.com, "As Merkel’s Power Drains, the Threat to Europe Grows," 27 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paradox.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The ancient Greeks were well aware that a paradox can take us outside our usual way of thinking. They combined the prefix para- ("beyond" or "outside of") with the verb dokein ("to think"), forming paradoxos, an adjective meaning "contrary to expectation." Latin speakers picked up the word and used it to create their noun paradoxum, which English speakers borrowed during the 1500s to create paradox.

Origin and Etymology of paradox

Latin paradoxum, from Greek paradoxon, from neuter of paradoxos contrary to expectation, from para- + dokein to think, seem — more at decent

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1540

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

paradox Synonyms

Synonyms

contradiction, dichotomy, incongruity;

Other Logic Terms

a posteriori, connotation, corollary, inference, mutually exclusive, postulate, syllogism

PARADOX Defined for English Language Learners

paradox

noun

Definition of paradox for English Language Learners

: something (such as a situation) that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible
: someone who does two things that seem to be opposite to each other or who has qualities that are opposite
: a statement that seems to say two opposite things but that may be true