Oxymoron

[ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn]

/[ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn]/ noun

The verdict

“Oxymoron” is uncommon German (frequency #89,388 among 1,007 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,388
frequency rank, German
1,007
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sprachliche Konstruktion (rhetorische Figur), die aussieht wie ein Widerspruch in sich innerhalb eines Worts oder bei Wortkombinationen

Corpus desk

Index DE-oxymoron · Oxymoron · German

Oxymoron · rank #89,388 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,388
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,007
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ostersamstag

Nearest frequency peer: Ostersamstag (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „Oxymoron“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „Oxymoron“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Oxymoron
PropertyValue
HeadwordOxymoron
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn]
Letters8
Frequency rank#89,388
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Oxymoron“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.Oxymoronfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Ostersamstag“ (#89,387), „pago“ (#89,389), „Ortskerns“ (#89,386). Unter 1,007 „O“-Lemmata liegt „Oxymoron“ bei #89,388. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Oxymoron is uncommon German at frequency #89,388 among 1,007 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Oxymoron, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is Oxymoron, spelled O-X-Y-M-O-R-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    sprachliche Konstruktion (rhetorische Figur), die aussieht wie ein Widerspruch in sich innerhalb eines Worts oder bei Wortkombinationen
  2. 2
    (scheinbar) sich selbst widersprechende Aussage ohne rhetorischen Anspruch; eine so bezeichnete Sache

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Oxymoron appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. „süßsauer“, „scharfsinniger Unsinn“, „virtuelle Realität“ oder „Bürgeradel“ sind Beispiele für beide Formen von Oxymora.
  2. Die deutsche Redewendung „alter Knabe“ ist ein Oxymoron.

Synonyms

Widerspruch in sich

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Oxymoron"?
"Oxymoron" is spelled O-X-Y-M-O-R-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is [ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn].
What does "Oxymoron" mean?
As a noun, "Oxymoron" means: sprachliche Konstruktion (rhetorische Figur), die aussieht wie ein Widerspruch in sich innerhalb eines Worts oder bei Wortkombinationen
How do you pronounce "Oxymoron"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Oxymoron" is [ɔˈksyːmoʁɔn]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Oxymoron" come from?
"Oxymoron" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Oxymoron", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list