Two contradictory words placed together to create a striking, meaningful phrase - like 'deafening silence' or 'bittersweet.'
An oxymoron combines two words that seem to contradict each other into a single phrase. 'Jumbo shrimp,' 'living dead,' 'cruel kindness' - these phrases should not make sense, but they do, and they capture something that neither word could express alone. The word itself is an oxymoron, coming from the Greek for 'sharp-dull.' Oxymorons work because life is full of contradictions, and sometimes the most truthful thing you can say is something that seems impossible.
Oxymorons give you the power to express complex, contradictory emotions in just two words. When you write 'a peaceful fury,' the reader feels both calm and rage simultaneously - something a single word could never achieve. They are particularly useful for moments when a character's experience defies simple description, which, if you think about it, is most of the moments that actually matter in a story.
Shakespeare piles oxymorons into Romeo's speeches - 'O brawling love, O loving hate, O heavy lightness, serious vanity' - to show that love, especially forbidden love, is a tangle of contradictions.
The Party's slogans are political oxymorons: 'War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.' Orwell uses them to show how totalitarian language destroys meaning itself.
Morrison frequently uses oxymoronic language to capture the impossible contradictions of slavery and its aftermath, where love and horror, freedom and haunting, exist in the same breath.
Phrases like 'deafening silence' and 'bitter sweet' have been used so much they have lost their spark. Challenge yourself to create original oxymorons that capture the specific contradiction of your scene.
An oxymoron should reveal a truth about the contradictory nature of experience. If the contradiction is just clever wordplay with no deeper meaning, it feels like showing off.
One well-placed oxymoron can define a scene. Five in the same paragraph will make the reader feel like they are reading a list of word puzzles.
Write ten original oxymorons that describe emotional states. Avoid common ones - no 'deafening silence' or 'bittersweet.' Then pick your three favorites and write a sentence for each that uses the oxymoron in the context of a specific character and situation, making the contradiction feel natural and necessary rather than forced.