as in paradox
someone or something with qualities or features that seem to conflict with one another she's an incongruity: an impeccably groomed woman who keeps a messy house

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of incongruity The incongruity of the black tooth and the dignified voice of Joan Crawford shows a next-level artistic understanding of the best of TikTok. Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025 In another show, with a lesser writer, such incongruities could be read as character inconsistencies, accidental oversights, mistakes. Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 7 Apr. 2025 This is the incongruity that fuels Universal Language, Matthew Rankin’s glorious parody-slash-ode to someone else’s shadows-on-a-wall missives — a gesture of decontextualization that layers one country’s extraordinary visual poetry over another’s extreme blandness. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 Feb. 2025 The natural state of life is that of incongruity; thus, better have your boxes ready. Colin Fleming, New York Daily News, 22 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for incongruity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incongruity
paradox
Noun
  • This theory of form contains a paradox in practice.
    Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 10 May 2025
  • California’s climb to the world’s fourth-largest economy marks a milestone and illustrates a paradox.
    Aref Aziz, Mercury News, 9 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Incongruity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incongruity. Accessed 22 May. 2025.

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