oxymoron

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
oxymoron
    n 1: conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence')
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Oxymoron \Ox`y*mo"ron\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ???, fr. ??? pointedly
   foolish; 'oxy`s sharp + mwro`s foolish.] (Rhet.)
   A figure in which an epithet of a contrary signification is
   added to a word; e. g., cruel kindness; laborious idleness.
   [1913 Webster]
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
54 Moby Thesaurus words for "oxymoron":
      Gordian knot, absurdity, ambiguity, ambivalence, antinomy,
      asymmetry, crux, dilemma, disproportion, disproportionateness,
      enigma, equivocality, equivocation, heresy, heterodoxy,
      heterogeneity, hopelessness, impossibility, impossible,
      impossibleness, incoherence, incommensurability, incompatibility,
      inconceivability, incongruity, inconsistency, inconsonance, irony,
      irreconcilability, knot, knotty point, no chance, node, nodus,
      nonconformability, nonconformity, nonplus, paradox, perplexity,
      pons asinorum, poser, puzzle, quandary, self-contradiction, teaser,
      the impossible, unconformability, unconformity, unimaginability,
      unorthodoxy, unthinkability, vexed question, what cannot be,
      what cannot happen
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