Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Paradoxical |
ParadoxicalAdjective1. Seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true; "it is paradoxical that standing is more tiring than walking". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "paradoxical" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | Occurring at variance with the normal rule. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: ParadoxicalSynonym: self-contradictory (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Uncertainty | Perplexing; Verb: enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical; experimental. |
Unintelligibility | Illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret); indecipherable. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Paradoxical |
| English words defined with "paradoxical": catachresis ♦ Jakie ♦ Paradoxal, paradoxical sleep, paradoxically, Paradoxy ♦ self-contradictory. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "paradoxical": Flail Chest ♦ liar paradox ♦ oxygen paradox ♦ posthypoxia paradox ♦ Russell's Paradox. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "paradoxical": Paradoxure. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
George Eliot | But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy. |
Lao-tse | The truest sayings are paradoxical. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | In certain patients, drugs used to treat hypertension can instead raise blood pressure, although predicting which patients will have this paradoxical reaction is difficult. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Paradoxical" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.62% of the time. "Paradoxical" is used about 265 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.62% | 264 | 18,152 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.38% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 265 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "paradoxical": paradoxical frog ♦ paradoxical sleep. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "paradoxical": non-paradoxical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
paradoxical | 12 |
commandment paradoxical | 10 |
intention paradoxical | 4 |
paradoxical sleep | 3 |
f f paradoxical | 3 |
bronchospasm paradoxical | 2 |
paradoxical embolism | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "paradoxical"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | paradoksal, kontradiktor (conflicting, contradictory, inconsistent, irreconcilable). (various references) | |
Arabic | متناقض (antithetic, antithetical, conflicting, contradictious, contradictory, irreconcilable), غير معقول (out of the question, pointless, preposterous, unbelievable, unconscionable, unimaginable, unreasonable), تناقضي (antithetic, antithetical). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | парадоксален. (various references) | |
Chinese | 似是而非 (sophistic, sophistical). (various references) | |
Czech | paradoxní (ironical). (various references) | |
Danish | paradoksal. (various references) | |
Dutch | paradoxaal. (various references) | |
Esperanto | paradoksa. (various references) | |
Faeroese | ósamsvarandi, órímiligur. (various references) | |
Finnish | paradoksinen, para-, vilke-. (various references) | |
French | paradoxal (paradox). (various references) | |
German | paradox (ironic, paradox, paradoxically). (various references) | |
Greek | παράδοξος (paradox, peculiar). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בלתי מתקבל על ""עת (unreasonable). (various references) | |
Hungarian | paradox. (various references) | |
Italian | paradossale (paradox, strange). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 逆説的 , パラチフス菌 (clattering, falling indrops, flipping through a book, paradox, paraffin, paranoia, paratyphoid bacillus, pattering, sprinkle). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぎゃくせつてき, パラドクシカル . (various references) | |
Korean | 역설 (Paradox, paradoxes). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aradoxicalpay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | paradoxal (paraffin). (various references) | |
Romanian | paradoxal (paradoxically). (various references) | |
Russian | парадоксальный. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | paradoksalan. (various references) | |
Spanish | paradójico. (various references) | |
Swedish | paradoxal. (various references) | |
Turkish | mantığa aykırı görünen. (various references) | |
Ukranian | парадоксальний. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nghịch lý, ngược đời. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | admirabile, admirabilis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "paradoxical": paradoxicalities, paradoxicality, paradoxically, paradoxicalness, paradoxicalnesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "paradoxical": ultraparadoxical. (additional references) | |
| |
"Paradoxical" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: paradisial, paradogical, paradoxial, paradoxic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "paradoxical" (pronounced pe'rudÄ"ksikul) |
| 6 | -k s i k u l | lexical. |
| 5 | -s i k u l | bicycle, classical, icicle, neoclassical, nonsensical, popsicle, semiclassical, tricycle. |
| 4 | -i k u l | acoustical, alphabetical, analytical, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, asymmetrical, atypical, autobiographical, biographical, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, categorical, cervical, chronological, comical, conical, critical, cubicle, cyclical, cylindrical, cynical, dermatological, diabolical, dialectical, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, empirical, encyclical, epidemiological, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, evangelical, fanatical, galenical, geographical, geological, geometrical, geopolitical, graphical, gynecological, helical, heretical, historical, hypercritical, hypocritical, hysterical, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, inimical, ironical, lackadaisical, liturgical, logical, logistical, lyrical, magical, mathematical, mechanical, metallurgical, metaphorical, metaphysical, methodological, metrical, morphological, musical, mystical, mythological, neurological, nonelectrical, nonpolitical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, ontological, optical, ornithological, pathological, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, philosophical, phonological, physical, physiological, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, puritanical, rabbinical, radiological, rhetorical, sabbatical, semicylindrical, semitropical, serological, sociological, spherical, statistical, stereotypical, strategical, surgical, symmetrical, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, testicle, theatrical, theological, theoretical, topical, toxicological, tropical, typographical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncritical, uneconomical, unethical, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, whimsical, zoological. |
| 3 | -k u l | aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, article, barnacle, biblical, bifocal, biochemical, brickle, buckle, cackle, chemical, Chronicle, chuckle, circle, clavicle, clerical, clinical, commonsensical, coracle, cortical, crackle, cuticle, cycle, debacle, diacritical, domical, ducal, encircle, epochal, equivocal, etymological, farcical, fecal, fickle, fiscal, focal, follicle, freckle, geophysical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, hackle, heckle, heterocercal, hierarchical, honeysuckle, Huckle, hypothetical, impractical, jackal, knuckle, local, maniacal, matriarchal, medical, meikle, meteorological, methodical, Mickle, miracle, monocle, motorcycle, muckle, mythical, nautical, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, numerical, obstacle, Oracle, oratorical, particle, patriarchal, photochemical, pickle, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, practical, pumpernickel, quizzical, radical, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, ruckle, runkle, satirical, shackle, shekel, sickle, skeptical, Sokol, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, sprinkle, stickle, suckle, tabernacle, tackle, tentacle, tickle, tinkle, trickle, twinkle, typical, uncle, unequivocal, unicycle, unshackle, vocal, Winkle, wrinkle. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-c-d-i-l-o-p-r-x" | |
-3 letters: caldaria, carpalia. | |
-4 letters: acaroid, adaxial, apraxia, apraxic, arcadia, caporal, carapax, carload, coaxial, cordial, dipolar, paradox, parodic, picador, placard, placoid, radical. | |
-5 letters: acarid, alodia, alpaca, apical, apodal, cardia, caroli, carpal, coaxal, lorica, oxalic, picara, picaro, placid, prolix, racial, radial. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-c-d-i-l-o-p-r-x" | |
+2 letters: paradoxically. | |
+3 letters: paradoxicality. | |
+4 letters: paradoxicalness. | |
+5 letters: paradoxicalities, ultraparadoxical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 72 61 64 6F 78 69 63 61 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- .-. .- -.. --- -..- .. -.-. .- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100100 01101111 01111000 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a r a d o x i c a l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0072 0061 0064 006F 0078 0069 0063 0061 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5067846770819075696778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
