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Odd vs Oxymoron - What's the difference?

odd | oxymoron |

As an initialism odd

is oppositional defiant disorder.

As a noun oxymoron is

oxymoron (figure of speech).

odd

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (not comparable) Single; sole; singular; not having a mate.
  • (obsolete) Singular in excellence; unique; sole; matchless; peerless; famous.
  • Singular in looks or character; peculiar; eccentric.
  • Strange, unusual.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.}}
  • (not comparable) Occasional; infrequent.
  • * (Sir Walter Scott), Guy Mannering – or The Astrologer
  • I assure you, if I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd times.
  • (not comparable) Left over, remaining when the rest have been grouped.
  • (not comparable) Casual, irregular, not planned.
  • (not comparable, in combination with a number, not comparable) About, approximately.
  • (not comparable) Not divisible by two; not even.
  • Synonyms

    * (not having a mate) single, mismatched * (strange) bizarre, peculiar, queer, rum, strange, unusual, weird, fremd * (about) about, approximately, around * See also

    Antonyms

    * (not divisible by two) even

    Derived terms

    * oddball * odd duck * odd one out * odds

    Anagrams

    * *

    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

    See also

    *

    References