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Metonymy vs Oxymoron - What's the difference?

metonymy | oxymoron |

As nouns the difference between metonymy and oxymoron

is that metonymy is the use of a single characteristic or name of an object to identify an entire object or related object while oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.

metonymy

English

(wikipedia metonymy)

Noun

  • The use of a single characteristic or name of an object to identify an entire object or related object.
  • (countable) A metonym.
    • {{examples-right, caption=metonymy , examples=*The White House released its official report today. — "The White House" for "The presidential administration"
    * The Crown has enacted a new social security policy. — "The Crown" for "The government of the United Kingdom".
    * A crowd of fifty heads — where "head" stands for person.
    * Put it on the plastic — material (plastic) for object (credit card), width=60%}}

    Coordinate terms

    * metaphor

    Hypernyms

    * trope, figure of speech

    Hyponyms

    * synecdoche, synecdochy

    Derived terms

    * metonymous * metonym * metonymic

    See also

    * ("metonymy" on Wikipedia) * metalepsis *

    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