I'm Not an Oxymoron, You Are! Trivia Quiz

Answer: shrimp

"I'll take an order of jumbo shrimp." A shrimp, of course, is a popular edible crustacean. But it has also come to mean something small, as in "she's a shrimp". Ergo, when you see "jumbo shrimp" on a menu, it's a tad disconcerting. It's also the most widely used example of an oxymoron.

Answer: heater

"That's a cool heater in your living room." As you know, cool is the opposite of heat. Since at least the 1930s, the word cool in American English has also meant very nice. Therefore, someone just might use the oxymoron "cool heater" when describing a snazzy looking heating device.

Answer: teacher

"She's a student teacher." To explain this oxymoron, I'll turn the mic over to my wise and gentle FunTrivia editor looney_tunes. "A student teacher is someone who is in training to become a teacher, so a student preparing to become a teacher - they are not simultaneously student and teacher, except if they are taking a practice lesson under supervision."

Answer: moving

"Despite the beaver dam, water was still moving." To be still means to be stationary, or not moving. Something which has been moving for a period of time and continues to do so can be said to be still moving, which definitely sounds like a contradiction in terms.

Answer: waiter

"At the cafe we had a very speedy waiter." A waiter serves food, but it can also mean someone who is waiting. A waiter in the latter sense is usually stationary. Therefore, a speedy waiter is an anomaly. And an oxymoron.

Answer: light

"Workers needed a crane to hoist the heavy light." How can something be both light and heavy? What if it's a lamp that weighs a ton? That is a heavy light and an oxymoron.

Answer: sink

"The remodeled kitchen featured a raised sink with a marble counter." The word sink implies going down. The word raised implies lifted up. That makes a raised sink (a basin for holding a reservoir of water which is placed in a higher position than usual) a pretty good oxymoron.

Answer: reality

"Some experts believe that technology can create a false reality." False means not real and reality means really real. So the phrase "false reality" only works IN a false reality, a world where appearances are illusory ... and as an oxymoron.

Answer: weak

"After being in bed with the flu, they felt mighty weak." The word mighty connotes strength, but it also can act as an intensifier to describe an adjective. So mighty weak means really weak, very weak. But it also works as an oxymoron, because it sounds like it could mean strong weak.

Answer: flight

"The grounded flight was cleared for takeoff later in the day." We call the whole process of taking an airplane a flight -- from booking a flight to my flight landed. This broad usage of the word flight enables the phrase grounded flight, which means an aircraft whose planned flight is delayed or cancelled, so that it must remain on the runway, to provide us with a perfect oxymoron.