Home

search contact us about us

Glossaries

A-Z grammar terms A-Z confused pairs "parts of speech" lists

Punctuation Lessons

using apostrophes using colons using commas using dashes using hyphens using brackets using semicolons using quotation marks

English Idioms

50 common idioms 50 funny idioms 50 clever idioms 50 sarcastic idioms

Vocabulary Lessons

vocabulary lists vocabulary games

Oxymoron

What Is an Oxymoron?

An oxymoron is the use of words in which two contradictory terms are combined.

The term oxymoron is itself an oxymoron (oxy means sharp, and moron means dull). The plural of oxymoron is oxymorons or oxymora.

Oxymorons are not usually mistakes. There is no need to avoid them. Often, an oxymoron is a well-accepted term with a good reason to have contradictory elements.

Examples of Oxymorons

Here are some examples of oxymorons:

• act naturally
(Acting means you're not being natural.)
• jumbo shrimp
(Shrimp means small, so it can't be jumbo.)
• four-ounce pound cake
(A pound means a pound not four ounces.)
• rock opera
(An opera means an opera not rock.)
• non-working mother
(Being a mother involves a lot of work.)
• plastic glasses
(Glasses are made of glass not plastic.)

A Quick Test

• This test has questions.
• You will score at least 5 points for a correct answer.
• You will score bonus points for answering the questions quickly.
• Be careful though. Wrong answers score 0 points.
• The maximum score is .

Scoring System

Grammar Guru (+)
Grammar Hero (+)
Grammar Captain (+)
Grammar Sergeant (+)
Grammar Recruit (+)