paradox

CEFRB2

/ˈpæ.ɹəˌdɒks/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

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At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

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Extra meanings

A counterintuitive conclusion or outcome.
An apparently self-contradictory statement, which can only be true if it is false, and vice versa.
A thing involving contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time.

In context

"This sentence is false" is a paradox.
It is an interesting paradox that drinking a lot of water can often make you feel thirsty.
Not having a fashion is a fashion; that's a paradox.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

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
According to one version of an ancient paradox, an Athenian is supposed to say "I am a liar." It is then argued that if the statement is true, then he is telling the truth, and is therefore not a liar […]
1962, Abraham Wolf, Textbook of Logic, page 255
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
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
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

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From Middle French paradoxe, from Latin paradoxum, from Ancient Greek παράδοξος (parádoxos, “unexpected, strange”).