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Contraction vs Oxymoron - What's the difference?

contraction | oxymoron |

As nouns the difference between contraction and oxymoron

is that contraction is a reversible reduction in size while oxymoron is oxymoron (figure of speech).

contraction

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A reversible reduction in size.
  • (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
    • The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
  • (biology) A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
  • (medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
  • (linguistics) A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
    • In English ''didn't'', ''that's'', and ''wanna'', the endings ''-n't'', ''-'s'', and ''-a'' arose by contraction .
  • (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
    • "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
  • (medicine) Contracting a disease.
    • The contraction of AIDS from toilet seats is extremely rare.
  • (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
  • The acquisition of something, generally negative.
    • Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
  • (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

    • Antonyms

    * expansion * dilatation

    Derived terms

    * contractional * contractionary * hypercontraction * supercontraction

    Related terms

    * contract * contractation * contractive

    See also

    * omission * *

    oxymoron

    English

    (wikipedia oxymoron)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.
  • * A famous example is Milton, Paradise Lost , Book 1, ll. 63-4:
    • No light, but rather darkness visible
    Serv'd only to discover sights of woe
  • * Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet , Act 1. Scene 1, in which Romeo utters nine oxymora in just six lines of soliloquy:
    • Why then, O brawling love', O ' loving hate ,
    O anything, from nothing first create,
    O heavy lightness'! ' Serious vanity !
    Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
    Feather of lead', '''bright smoke''', '''cold fire''', ' sick health ,
    Still-waking sleep , that is not what it is!
    This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
  • (general) A contradiction in terms.

    • Usage notes

    * Historically, an (term) was "a (paradox) with a point",Jebb, Sir Richard (1900). Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone] . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. where the contradiction seems absurd at first glance, and yet is deliberate, its purpose being to underscore a point or to draw attention to a concealed point. The modern usage of (term) as a synonym for the simpler contradiction in terms is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, and is perhaps best avoided in certain contexts. (See also the [[w:oxymoron, Wikipedia article].)

    Derived terms

    * oxymoronic * oxymoronically * oxymoronicness

    Related terms

    * moron * oxy- * paradox * sophomore

    See also

    *

    References

    External links

    * List of oxymorons * Lee’s Complete Oxymoron List], with discussion of classification ([http://web.archive.org/web/20080617020051/http://lee.critesclan.com/oxymorons.html archive) English autological terms English oxymorons