contradiction in terms
Internally inconsistent expression
A contradiction in terms is a phrase containing words that cancel each other out, making the expression logically impossible: jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, act naturally.
Some are deliberate rhetorical devices; others reveal muddled thinking.
The phrase often appears as criticism: Calling it a "friendly takeover" is a contradiction in terms.
- oxymoronSelf-contradicting phrase device
- military intelligenceWartime information gathering
- act naturallySimulate genuine behavior
- antinomyContradiction between valid conclusions
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
clearly confused · Catch-22 · antithesis · absurdity · incongruity · same difference · falsity · living dead · living death · logical fallacy · untruth · irony · open secret · falsehood · Zeno's paradoxes · deafening silence · double bind · alone together
contradiction in termstautology
Redundant or circular statement
logical consistency · pleonasm · truism · self-evident truth · axiom
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