(~es)
1.
You describe a situation as a ~ when it involves two or more facts or qualities which seem to contradict each other.
The ~ is that the region’s most dynamic economies have the most primitive financial systems...
N-COUNT
2.
A ~ is a statement in which it seems that if one part of it is true, the other part of it cannot be true.
Although I’m so successful I’m really rather a failure. That’s a ~, isn’t it?
N-VAR