A paradox is a statement which seems to contradict itself but is (usually) true. For example, "The middle of the battlefield was quite peaceful." A paradox can also be a person or object which has contradictory properties. A turtle (normally a very slow creature) that moves very fast could be a paradox. Antithesis normally means an object or person which is the opposite of something else. A very peaceful man is the antithesis of a very violent man. Oxymoron is a figure of speech which uses terms that contradict each other. Normally this is much shorter than a paradox; a single phrase or even a single word. For example, "peaceful violence". "The army stopped shooting and instead used poison gas, and the peaceful violence spread across the battlefield." "Frenemy" is another, and it combines the words "friend" and "enemy", meaning a person who is both your friend and your enemy.