paradox

Noun

paradox (countable and uncountable, plural paradoxes)

1. An apparently self-contradictory statement, which can only be true if it is false, and vice versa.
   • "This sentence is false" is a paradox.
   • The active sense of living which we all enjoy, before reflection shatters our instinctive world for us, is self-luminous and suggests no paradoxes.1909, William James, A pluralistic universe. Hibbert lectures, page 347
2. A counterintuitive conclusion or outcome.
   • It is an interesting paradox that drinking a lot of water can often make you feel thirsty.
   • The most fundamental paradox is that if we're never to use force, we must be prepared to use it and to use it successfully.1983 May 21, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address

   Synonyms:

   shocker

3. A claim that two apparently contradictory ideas are true.
   • Not having a fashion is a fashion; that's a paradox.
   • How quaint the ways of Paradox! / At common sense she gaily mocks! / Though counting in the usual way years twenty-one I've been alive, / Yet reck'ning by my natal day, / Yet reck'ning by my natal day, / I am a little boy of five!1879, W. S. Gilbert, “The Pirates of Penzance”, in The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan, published 1941
4. A thing involving contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time.
5. A person or thing having contradictory properties.
   • He is a paradox; you would not expect him in that political party.
   • You are a paradox of bitch and angel.1999, Virginia Henley, A Year and a Day, →ISBN, page 315

   Synonyms:

   juxtaposition, contradiction

6. An unanswerable question or difficult puzzle, particularly one which leads to a deeper truth.
   • And only by dismantling our preconceptions of age can we be free to understand the paradox: How young are the old?1994, James Joseph Pirkl, Transgenerational Design, →ISBN, page 3

   Synonyms:

   puzzle, quandary, riddle, enigma, koan

7. (obsolete) A statement which is difficult to believe, or which goes against general belief.
   • Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner / transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the / force of honesty can translate beauty into his / likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the / time gives it proof.1594, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act III
   • they contended to make that Maxim, that there is no faith to be held with Infidels, a meere and absurd Paradox [...].1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond, published 1957, page 3
8. (uncountable) The use of counterintuitive or contradictory statements (paradoxes) in speech or writing.
   • The need for paradox is no doubt rooted deep in the very nature of the use we make of language.1906, Richard Holt Hutton, Brief Literary Criticisms, page 40
9. (uncountable) A state in which one is logically compelled to contradict oneself.
   • Thus, like modern disputants, they aimed either to confute the respondent or to land him in paradox.1866, Edward Poste, Aristotle on Fallacies, Or, The Sophistici Elenchi, translation of original by Aristotle, page 43
10. (psychotherapy) The practice of giving instructions that are opposed to the therapist's actual intent, with the intention that the client will disobey or be unable to obey.
    • Defiance-based paradox is employed so that the family will actively oppose and deliberately sabotage the prescription.1988, Martin Lakin, Ethical Issues in the Psychotherapies, →ISBN, page 103

    Synonyms:

    reverse psychology