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Oxymoron vs Climax - What's the difference?

oxymoron | climax |

As nouns the difference between oxymoron and climax

is that oxymoron is oxymoron (figure of speech) while climax is climax.

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

    climax

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • The point of greatest intensity or force in an ascending series; a culmination
  • * 1949 , Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart,
    • The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when the seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.
  • The turning point in a plot or in dramatic action, especially one marking a change in the protagonist's affairs.
  • (ecosystem)(label) A stage of ecological development in which a community of organisms is stable and capable of perpetuating itself.
  • (slang) An orgasm.
  • (rhetoric) Ordering of terms in increasing order of importance or magnitude.
  • (rhetoric) Anadiplosis.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Coordinate terms

    * (order by increasing importance) catacosmesis

    Derived terms

    * climactic * climax community

    Related terms

    * climacteric

    Verb

    (es)
  • To reach or bring to a climax
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 31 , author=Tasha Robinson , title=Film: Review: Snow White And The Huntsman citation , page= , passage=Huntsman starts out with a vision of Theron that’s specific, unique, and weighted in character, but it trends throughout toward generic fantasy tropes and black-and-white morality, and climaxes in a thoroughly familiar face-off. }}
  • To orgasm; to reach orgasm

    • External links

    * *