paradox

Word family

1 [countableC]STRANGE a situation that seems strange because it involves two ideas or qualities that are very different 自相矛盾（的情况）

It’s a paradox that in such a rich country there can be so much poverty.

在如此富有的国家却有这么多的贫穷现象，真是矛盾。

2 [countableC]OPPOSITE/REVERSE a statement that seems impossible because it contains two opposing ideas that are both true 悖论，似非而是的说法

The paradox is that fishermen would catch more fish if they fished less.

悖论就是: 如果渔夫减少捕鱼，反而会打到更多的鱼。

3. [uncountableU]OPPOSITE/REVERSE the use of statements that are a paradox in writing or speech 悖论修辞

—paradoxical /ˌpærəˈdɒksɪkəl◂ $ -ˈdɑːk-/ adjectiveadj

Examples from the Corpus

paradox• The recent attacks, in which 17 people were killed and 28 injured, are a paradox for many.• Isn't it a paradox that the airline with the lowest fares is the one with the most customer satisfaction?• There's a paradox in the fact that although we're living longer than ever before, people are more obsessed with health issues than they ever were.• Fortunately, a way out of this apparent paradox exists.• The agony and the ecstasy of the eleventh-hour reprieve illustrated the central paradox of Calvinism.• Solving the infective dose paradox might lead to new strategies for elimination of this preventable pneumonia.• The lek paradox is thus solved at a stroke.• Being defined in terms of tension or paradox, ambiguity's potential diversity was restored to some sort of unitary wholeness.• To explain this seeming paradox, let me refer you to a drawing now found in many introductory psychology textbooks.• It is this paradox, according to Brooks, that is the main point of the poem.

Origin paradox

(1500-1600) Latin paradoxum, from Greek, from paradoxis “opposite to what is expected”

Chinese

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