paradoxical

adjective

having the nature of a paradox; self-contradictory.

Medicine/Medical. not being the normal or usual kind: Stimulants are a paradoxical, albeit effective, medication used for certain forms of hyperactivity.

Sometimes, par·a·dox·al.

Origin:
paradox + -ical

Related forms

par·a·dox·i·cal·ly, adverb

par·a·dox·i·cal·ness, par·a·dox·i·cal·i·ty, noun

non·par·a·dox·i·cal, adjective

non·par·a·dox·i·cal·ly, adverb

non·par·a·dox·i·cal·ness, noun

ul·tra·par·a·dox·i·cal, adjective

ul·tra·par·a·dox·i·cal·ly, adverb

un·par·a·dox·al, adjective

un·par·a·dox·i·cal, adjective

un·par·a·dox·i·cal·ly, adverb

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Paradoxical is always a great word to know.

So is carpal. Does it mean:

the inner of the two bones of the leg, that extend from the knee to the ankle; the shinbone

any of the bones of the wrist.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

paradox (ˈpærəˌdɒks)

—n
1.	a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement that is or may be true: religious truths are often expressed in paradox
2.	a self-contradictory proposition, such as I always tell lies
3.	a person or thing exhibiting apparently contradictory characteristics
4.	an opinion that conflicts with common belief

[C16: from Late Latin paradoxum, from Greek paradoxos opposed to existing notions, from para-¹ + doxa opinion]

para'doxical

—*adj*

para'doxically

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

paradoxical

1580s, from paradox. Competing forms were paradoxal (1560s), paradoxial (1620s), but they survive in niches, if at all.

Example sentences

In classical Greece, you'll meet the most daring and paradoxical people since

the dawn of time.

Its very virtues, in some paradoxical way, become a form of punishment.

And yet she remains somehow paradoxical, impenetrable, unknowable.

Don't be combative and, paradoxical as it may sound, don't become defensive.

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Matching Quote

"Art has no cosmology, it gives us no view of the universe; every distinct work of art gives us a little cosmology of its own, and no ingenuity will combine all these into a single whole. But religion is essentially cosmological, though its cosmology is always an imaginative cosmology. Any given religious experience can be fitted by this cosmology into the scheme of the whole, and labeled as an ascent into the third heaven, a temptation of the devil, and so forth. Hence religion is social, as art can never be. The sociability of artists is a paradoxical and precarious thing, and ceases the instant they begin their actual artistic work. But the sociability of religion is part of its fundamental nature. The life of religion is always the life of a church."

-R.G. Collingwood