antithesis
Antithesis is a figure that sets opposing ideas or clauses side by side for clarity; foil to oxymoron (compact contrary pair) and to paradox.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- ling. / rhet. / lit. Trope: a juxtaposition of opposing ideas, clauses, or members for clarity of contrast. Axis: open opposition across a broader construction, not a compact contrary pair in oxymoron and not a paradoxical claim.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - hist. lex. Lexicon notes: Webster 1913 marks ANTITHESIS under rhetoric with a three-syllable stress mark; Skeat 1910 indexes ANTITHESIS from Gk. ἀντίθεσις; Arct 1921 keeps Antyteza and Antytetyczny; Brückner 1927 has no antyteza lemma.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ANTITHESIS; ANTITHETIC); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ANTITHESIS); M. Arct 1921 (Antyteza; Antytetyczny); A. Brückner 1927 (no antyteza), open source - didact. / rhet. In teaching, antithesis sits beside oxymoron, paradox, irony, hyperbole, and simile: oxymoron compresses contrary signs into a tight phrase, paradox pushes a claim against the obvious, antithesis spreads opposition across larger members. Border scope needs review.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - colloq. Everyday talk may dump any opposite under this tag. This entry holds one rhetorical axis: deliberate juxtaposition of opposing members for clarity, foil to a compact oxymoron and foil to a paradoxical claim; not a casual synonym for opposite alone.
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Examples
- A line where the poor live yesterday and the rich plan tomorrow is textbook antithesis (opposing members in one flow); a neighbour filed living dead and lost the broader-opposition axis for an oxymoron.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The morning block drilled antithesis; oxymoron notes returned as the compact-pair foil, and paradox stood beside as a claim against the obvious.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Reading list: the 1913 Webster ANTITHESIS card, Skeat 1910 under ANTITHESIS, the 1921 Arct Antyteza / Antytetyczny set, and Brückner 1927 with no lemma.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Treating every antithesis as a plain opposite erased the deliberate-juxtaposition-versus-lexical-pair split at once.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Board order: antithesis, oxymoron, paradox, antonym, so broader opposition stayed apart from a compact pair, from a claim, and from a lexical opposite.
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Usage
Casual talk may stamp any opposite as antithesis with no named axis. Seminar work peels layers: open side-by-side placement of contrary ideas or clauses to sharpen contrast; oxymoron as foil (compact contrary pair); paradox as foil (a claim against the obvious); plus lexicon notes. Webster keeps ANTITHESIS (Rhet.). Skeat under ANTITHESIS points to Gk. ἀντίθεσις from ἀντί (over against) and θέσις (a setting) via τίθημι. Arct keeps Antyteza and Antytetyczny. Brückner has no lemma. Without those layers only an empty opposite slogan remains.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Open-book record. The 1913 Webster volume marks the noun ANTITHESIS (Rhet.) with stress An*tith"e*sis, senses of opposition of words or sentiments in the same sentence, the second clause of such a pair, and general contrast; ANTITHETIC and ANTITHETICAL sit nearby. Skeat indexes ANTITHESIS to Greek ἀντίθεσις (opposition, setting opposite), with derivatives antithetic and antithetical. The 1921 Arct volume keeps Antyteza for przeciwstawienie and Antytetyczny; the 1927 Brückner volume does not index antyteza. Facts here; derivation under etymology.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (ANTITHESIS; ANTITHETIC); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ANTITHESIS); M. Arct 1921 (Antyteza; Antytetyczny); A. Brückner 1927 (no lemma), open sourceScholarly English marks open opposition across members for clarity. Careful editors discard worksheets that treat every oxymoron as antithesis and discard glosses that never name the juxtaposition axis. The antithesis / oxymoron / paradox border stays debated in seminars. Chronology of the label stays blank until a primary source page is cited. Polish counterpart: antyteza (SGJP present).
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Classrooms revisit opposition talk in tropes and set antithesis against oxymoron, paradox, irony, euphemism, hyperbole, litotes, simile, metaphor, allegory, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, rhetoric, semantics, and antonym. CMUdict has the antithesis lemma (pipeline IPA). Polish antyteza sits in SGJP. Live neighbours include those tropes. Without the open-opposition axis the label collapses.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ANTITHESIS); CMUdict (antithesis present); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (antyteza present), open sourceWord forms
Countable noun: singular antithesis / plural antitheses (Webster). Related forms in Skeat/Webster: antithetic, antithetical, antithetically. CMUdict lemma present.
forms in use
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | antithesis |
| plural | antitheses (Webster ANTITHESIS) |
| related adjective | antithetic; antithetical (Skeat; Webster) |
| related adverb | antithetically (Webster) |
Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ANTITHESIS; ANTITHETIC; ANTITHETICALLY); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ANTITHESIS); CMUdict (antithesis present) · source
Collocations
- literary antithesis
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - antithesis versus oxymoron
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - juxtaposition of opposing members
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - rhetorical antithesis
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - distinguish antithesis from paradox
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team; facts: SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (antyteza present); M. Arct 1921 (Antyteza), open sourcesource
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (ANTITHESIS: Gk. ἀντίθεσις; Anti- and Thesis), open sourcealso
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (ANTITHESIS; ANTITHETIC; ANTITHETICAL; ANTITHETICALLY), open sourcealso
M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Antyteza; Antytetyczny), open sourcealso
A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no antyteza lemma), open sourceRelated words
- oxymoron , foil along the scale axis (compact contrary pair, not broader members); EN pair already live
- paradox , foil along the claim axis (statement against the obvious); EN pair already live
- irony , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
- hyperbole , foil along the scale axis (overstatement); EN pair already live
- litotes , trope neighbour (understatement); EN pair already live
- simile , foil along the likeness axis (open pairing with like / as); EN pair already live
- metaphor , trope neighbour (transfer); EN pair already live
- allegory , foil along the construct axis (image chain); EN pair already live
- personification , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
- euphemism , trope neighbour (etiquette softening); EN pair already live
- metonymy , trope neighbour (contiguity transfer); EN pair already live
- synecdoche , trope neighbour (part for whole); EN pair already live
- rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
- semantics , sense and opposition neighbour; EN pair already live
- antonym , foil: lexical opposite pair without a required rhetorical figure; EN pair already live
- antyteza , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Arct Antyteza; Webster ANTITHESIS)
Related entries
The same entry in Polish: antyteza
Questions and answers
What does antithesis mean?
The word names an open pairing of contrary ideas or clauses that sharpens contrast. Oxymoron packs contraries into one phrase. Paradox advances a claim against the obvious. Antonym is a lexical opposite without a required figure.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)How does antithesis differ from oxymoron?
Antithesis spreads opposition across broader members or clauses. Oxymoron keeps contrary signs in one compact phrase (deafening silence). Casual speech blurs them often; the scale axis of the pairing differs clearly in seminars.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)How does antithesis differ from paradox?
Antithesis openly sets opposing members side by side for clarity. Paradox advances a claim that clashes with the obvious or with expectation. That is the axis foil, not a synonym.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word antithesis come from, and what forms sit with it?
Skeat 1910 ties ANTITHESIS to Gk. ἀντίθεσις (ἀντί + θέσις) and to Anti- / Thesis; derivatives antithetic, antithetical. Webster 1913 marks ANTITHESIS (Rhet.) with plural antitheses. Arct 1921: Antyteza; Antytetyczny. Brückner 1927: no lemma. Forms: antithesis / antitheses. IPA from CMU: /ænˈtɪθəsəs/. Polish pair: antyteza (SGJP present).