About Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two terms appear to contradict each other. Some examples have become so familiar that we hardly notice the contradiction, eg deafening silence. The word comes from the Greek: oxus ('sharp') and mōros ('foolish').

David Harsent's 'Sniper' observes a woman 'running slowly' - the oxymoron in this image, explained a moment later as her 'running not to spill', causes a reader to pause to picture what this looks like, and to consider the urgency of her need to run through this war-torn place with her precious water.

An example of Oxymoron

Close