Phrase Hound found 100 phrases and 18 compound words that contain paradox. The most common are listed below. Open paradox in the live search for definitions, filters, and the full list.
Phrases 100
- French paradoxThe observation that the French suffer a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats.
- Russell's paradoxThe paradox that a set defined to contain all sets which do not contain themselves can neither consistently contain itself nor not contain itself.
- Gibson's paradoxThe observation that the rate of interest and the general level of prices are positively correlated.
- paradox of fictionThe paradox that (i) people have emotional responses to fictitious events, and (ii) one must believe that something truly exists in order to be emotionally moved by it, but (iii) nobody who considers an event to be fictitious can also …
- paradox of savingSynonym of paradox of thrift: A paradox in which an increase in autonomous saving leads to a decrease in aggregate demand and thus a decrease in gross output which will in turn lower total saving.
- paradox of toleranceThe idea that, if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.
- Burali-Forti paradoxThe paradox that supposing the existence of a set of all ordinal numbers leads to a contradiction; construed as meaning that it is not a properly defined set.
- grandfather paradoxThe paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past.
- liar paradoxA paradox involving statements such as "this sentence is false", or "the following statement is true: the previous statement is false", which cannot be meaningfully regarded as either true or false.
- barber paradoxA paradox of self-reference, where, supposing that every man either shaves himself or is shaved by the barber, and the barber shaves all and only the men who do not shave themselves, then it is impossible to determine who shaves the barber.
- Tullock paradoxThe apparent paradox that a rent seeker wanting political favours can bribe politicians at a cost much lower than the value of the favour to the rent seeker.
- European paradoxThe perceived failure of European countries to translate scientific advances into marketable innovations.
- Fermi paradoxThe seeming contradiction, serving as a challenge to believers in the existence of advanced lifeforms throughout the universe, that there is no scientific evidence that extraterrestrial civilizations have tried to visit or communicate with …
- infinite hotel paradoxA thought experiment illustrating a counterintuitive property of infinite sets, showing that a fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms can still accommodate any number of additional guests.
- Jevons paradoxThe proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource.
- Hempel's paradoxA paradox arising from the question of what constitutes evidence for a statement. Observing objects that are neither black nor ravens may formally increase the likelihood that all ravens are black, even though, intuitively, these …
- Moravec's paradoxThe observation that, contrary to traditional assumptions, reasoning (which is high-level in humans) requires very little computation, but sensorimotor skills (comparatively low-level in humans) require enormous computational resources.
- Peto's paradoxThe observation that at the species level, the incidence of cancer does not appear to correlate with the number of cells in an organism.
- birthday paradoxThe counterintuitive observation that a random group of people needs to have only 23 members before there is a 50% chance of two of them having the same birthday.
- clock paradoxThe phenomenon in which two observers who start together with identical clocks, follow different timelines, and then rejoin can have different elapsed times on their clocks, especially if one travels at a relativistic speed.
- envelope paradoxSynonym of two envelopes problem: A puzzle of this kind: "You are given two indistinguishable envelopes, each containing money; one contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. Having …
- exchange paradoxSynonym of two envelopes problem: A puzzle of this kind: "You are given two indistinguishable envelopes, each containing money; one contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. Having …
- raven paradoxHempel's paradox
- diamond-water paradoxThe apparent contradiction that, although water is generally more useful than diamonds, diamonds command a higher price in the market.
- interesting number paradoxA humorous paradox arising from the attempt to classify every natural number as either "interesting" or "uninteresting". If there exists a non-empty set of uninteresting natural numbers, there must be a smallest uninteresting number, but …
Compound words 18
- paradoxologyThe use of paradoxes.
- paradessenceThe quality of appealing to and promising to satisfy multiple contradictory desires.
- paradoxistOne who holds incorrect or eccentric beliefs; a bad scientist; a crank.
- counterparadoxThe practice of a therapist instructing the client to do what the client is already doing, to trigger a change in perspective.
- nonparadoxThat which is not a paradox.
- paradoxerPerson who comes up with a paradox.
- paradoxlingA small paradox.
- paradoxographyA type of classical literature dealing with the occurrence of abnormal or inexplicable phenomena of the natural or human world.
- unparadoxTo resolve (a paradox); to make no longer paradoxical.
- paradoxersplural of paradoxer: Person who comes up with a paradox.