What's the difference between irony and paradox?

Irony


Definition:

  • (a.) Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles.
  • (a.) Resembling iron taste, hardness, or other physical property.
  • (n.) Dissimulation; ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.
  • (n.) A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) And the irony of it is it doesn't interest me at all.
  • (2) The irony of this type of self-manipulation is that ultimately the child, or adult, finds himself again burdened by impotence, though it is the impotence of guilt rather than that of shame.
  • (3) The irony is that we have more media than ever before, but less insight.
  • (4) Richard Aylard, director of sustainability and external affairs for Thames Water, said the firm was aware of the irony that heavy rain had set in after the hosepipe ban was announced.
  • (5) One of the terrible ironies of the Iraq War is that President Bush used the threat of nuclear terrorism to invade a country that had no active nuclear program.
  • (6) That he was able to keep his secret treasures here, not in some remote corner of the globe but in the centre of the city that gave birth to the National Socialist movement, is both extraordinary and not short of a certain dark irony.
  • (7) He is wary of pretension, alive to all shades of irony.
  • (8) There was a thing at the time that said basically: 'Oh, the working classes obviously don't understand this is irony, so Harry's had to kill him off.'
  • (9) But the character – compounded of piercing sanity and existential despair, infinite hesitation and impulsive action, self-laceration and observant irony – is so multi-faceted, it is bound to coincide at some point with an actor’s particular gifts.
  • (10) The irony of her image being exchanged in return for commodities in the future,” she said, “seems to recall the way that actual slaves’ bodies were serving as currencies of exchange.” Larson arrived at a different conclusion about the honor.
  • (11) In the end, though, practical rethinkers have to get beyond the delights of irony and paradox in which Glasman too often wraps himself.
  • (12) There is a perverse irony that people who have cracked their iPhones are now being targeted by hackers.
  • (13) The irony of this is that today, when I was getting all of this horrible antisemitic shit that I’ve only ever seen in Russia, I was reminded that 26 years ago today my family came to the US from Russia.
  • (14) The irony is an uncomfortable one for policymakers.
  • (15) Because of our slightly younger average age and city location, we were supposedly one of the "new wave" WIs that had started springing up in the years before – groups that rejected crochet and did more modern activities, often with more than a tinge of irony.
  • (16) White House officials said that Obama, who was planning to work on the final draft of his speech on his flight from Washington to Oslo, would directly address the issue of the irony of being awarded the peace prize while escalating the war.
  • (17) Labour's pensions spokesman, Gregg McClymont, said: "The irony is that there are lots of good pension schemes out there that are being undermined by what is going on.
  • (18) She is being helpful, no doubt about that, but there is an unconscious note of power play – not to mention the sweet irony of my having provoked her into pulling not one but two phones out of her bag within seconds of us sitting down.
  • (19) "The irony of welcoming to the London 2012 Olympic Games an individual who is alleged to have led an organised and brutal repression of athletes because they peacefully exercised their internationally recognised right to freedom of expression and association during Bahrain's Arab Spring would be a blow to all athletes around the world, and irreconcilable with the UK commitment to human rights and claimed support to peaceful pro-democracy movements," the ECCHR said.
  • (20) A h, the irony of white people complaining about being interrupted by black people.

Paradox


Definition:

  • (n.) A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion; an assertion or sentiment seemingly contradictory, or opposed to common sense; that which in appearance or terms is absurd, but yet may be true in fact.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Paradoxically, each tax holiday increases the need for the next, because companies start holding ever greater amounts of their tax offshore in the expectation that the next Republican government will announce a new one.
  • (2) This "paradox of redistribution" was certainly observable in Britain, where Welfare retained its status as one of the 20th century's most exalted creations, even while those claiming benefits were treated with ever greater contempt.
  • (3) Although selenium deficiency in livestock is consequently now rare in Oregon, selenium-deficient soils and attendant selenium deficiency conditions have been reported near the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the Northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, California, where, paradoxically, selenium toxicity in wildfowl, nesting near evaporation ponds, occurred and attracted wide attention.
  • (4) Our findings may hold the key to understanding the apparent paradox that although neuroleptics presumably induce their therapeutic actions in disorders such as Tourette syndrome and schizophrenia as well as their parkinsonian effects by blocking dopamine receptors, this antagonism occurs immediately while behavioral changes often require weeks for maximal development.
  • (5) Urinary output paradoxically increased during the first day following starvation, but fell dramatically thereafter.
  • (6) Transient "paradoxical" increase of ST segment elevation followed by rapid falling was observed in 4 patients.
  • (7) The duration of paradoxical sleep was particularly increased resembling the effects of benzodiazepines.
  • (8) Comparing measurements of base line and 30 and 60% of Pmmax indicated that the degree of asynchrony, paradox, and variation in compartmental contribution were significantly related to the level of the load; significant abnormalities were observed at even 30% of Pmmax, a target pressure that can be sustained indefinitely.
  • (9) Nitroprusside, which is the drug of choice for treating this "paradoxical hypertension," was not readily available.
  • (10) We have attempted to investigate a relationship between the paradoxical GH secretion with the abnormal glucose tolerance test present in some cases of acromegaly.
  • (11) Allen Mathies, president and chief executive officer at Huntington Memorial Hospital, cited a paradoxical side effect stemming from the success of his hospital's geriatric outreach programs.
  • (12) Paradoxical bronchoconstriction was not observed when salbutamol was diluted with water.
  • (13) Similar paradoxes bedevilled all the other chief themes.
  • (14) But like so many of his colleagues in the Trump administration , Spicer has shown us how unconsciousness and stupidity can, however paradoxically, assume a Machiavellian function – how a flagrant example of gross insensitivity and flat-out odiousness can serve as yet another useful and convenient distraction.
  • (15) In addition, despite this overall protective effect, zinc paradoxically increased the glutamate-induced destruction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase (NADPH-d)-containing neurons, a subpopulation that was shown in the preceding paper (Koh and Choi, 1988) to exhibit resistance to NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity, and vulnerability to non-NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity.
  • (16) Photograph: YouTube Formation is a protest and celebration, concerned with and in love with the very particular paradox of the black American identity and experience.
  • (17) Paradoxical embolus to the right coronary artery was demonstrated premorbidly and at autopsy.
  • (18) A sample of physician-referred chronic insomniacs was randomly allocated to either progressive relaxation, stimulus control, paradoxical intention, placebo or no treatment conditions.
  • (19) There was no difference between paradox and normal hearts in calcium stimulated ATPase activity in the SR.
  • (20) The apparent paradox in these results is correlated with different effects of the two maneuvers on left atrial pressure.