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oxymoron

Qwertyqwerty

Senior Member
Australian English
Is "vile incurable sores on innocent tongues" an oxymoron?

I thought it could possibly be but I am not sure if 'vile' can be considered as the opposite of 'innocent'.
Oxymorons don't work that way -- think "military intelligence" -- so this isn't one.
If we think of oxymorons as adjectives + nouns, it's not exactly an oxymoron -- "vile" refers to the sores, not the tongues.
oh, so it matters when the adjectives belong to different nouns? Oops. I thought that the "vile sores" contradicted the "innocent tongues".
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You might like to read this Wiki article. In addition to the most common form of oxymoron -- the adjective-noun combination of two words, such as living dead, failed success,and happy depression -- you'll find oxymorons as puns (jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly) and terms falsely called oxymorons for rhetorical effect -- the military intelligence I mentioned, plus a favorite: American culture. And more... have a look.
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