An oxymoron is a figure of speech where two words of opposed or contradictory meaning are used together to create emphasis. While some are created by accident – such as “small crowd” – at times they are used intentionally to draw attention or to create drama.
Oxymorons are very good for your writing because you want your writing to be as expressive as possible. Oxymoron is a powerful means to achieve that. For example, saying that a picture or a scene is “painfully beautifully” calls attention to the speaker and the object of inquiry. Such a phrase shows that an object can have two different qualities at once, making it a subject for study and analysis.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some English oxymorons and get to the bottom of what they actually mean so you could use them accurately.
Organised mess
How can a mess be organised? This is used to describe the disorder that which the writer/speaker actually know where everything is.
For example: Don’t worry, I can find everything in my house because it is an organised mess.
Alone together
It means you and someone are alone, and you are both together.
For example: It’s just you and your friends in an empty room.
Clearly misunderstood
Means someone totally did not understand something or someone.
For example: I was late, because the taxi driver clearly misunderstood Plaza Singapura as Peninsula Plaza.
Open secret
If something is a secret, no one else is supposed to know about it. This oxymoron is a great way to describe a fact that started off as a secret, but now a select number of people know about it. Many people will gossip about this “secret”, but won’t necessarily spread it any further!
For example: Everyone working at Sentosa knew about Mr Ng’s bankruptcy as it was an open secret
Even odds
Evens odds is a bet in which the potential of winning is the same as the original stake. In other words, it’s a fifty-fifty chance that a particular thing will happen.
For example: Experts estimated that an earthquake happening in Singapore had even odds of striking by 2021 and a 95 per cent chance of striking by 2069.
Pretty ugly
It actually means ugly, very ugly. Pretty, in English, is often used as a way to say “very”. “Pretty long ruler” really means “very long ruler”. However, “pretty” is a little bit less than “very”. On the scale of things one might say as a modifier: Unbelievably Incredibly Hugely Very Pretty Quite Somewhat A Little A Bit Slightly
Wise Fool
This particular phrase refers to a wise person who is many a times assumed to be a fool or who pretends to be a fool in front of others for his own or someone else’s greater good.
For example: That man standing outside the MRT station pretends to have speech difficulties. He’s a wise fool to get people’s sympathy in the form of monetary donations.
Act naturally
When you act, you are pretending to be someone that you are not naturally, and yet, it is very common to use the phrase “act naturally” to encourage someone to be themselves. This oxymoron works because often people have to work hard – against their desires – to just be themselves in certain company or in certain situations.
For example: When you meet PM Lee tomorrow, just act naturally.
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