as in paradox
someone or something with qualities or features that seem to conflict with one another
she's an incongruity: an impeccably groomed woman who keeps a messy house
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Recent Examples of incongruity
Camp is this aesthetic of ironic juxtaposition, taking something that might be shocking in its incongruity, and then using it to create a cool or humorous effect.
—
Sam Reed, Glamour, 15 Apr. 2025
The incongruity of the black tooth and the dignified voice of Joan Crawford shows a next-level artistic understanding of the best of TikTok.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025
In another show, with a lesser writer, such incongruities could be read as character inconsistencies, accidental oversights, mistakes.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 7 Apr. 2025
This is the incongruity that fuels Universal Language, Matthew Rankin’s glorious parody-slash-ode to someone else’s shadows-on-a-wall missives — a gesture of decontextualization that layers one country’s extraordinary visual poetry over another’s extreme blandness.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incongruity
Sam Reed, Glamour, 15 Apr. 2025
The incongruity of the black tooth and the dignified voice of Joan Crawford shows a next-level artistic understanding of the best of TikTok.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025
In another show, with a lesser writer, such incongruities could be read as character inconsistencies, accidental oversights, mistakes.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 7 Apr. 2025
This is the incongruity that fuels Universal Language, Matthew Rankin’s glorious parody-slash-ode to someone else’s shadows-on-a-wall missives — a gesture of decontextualization that layers one country’s extraordinary visual poetry over another’s extreme blandness.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incongruity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incongruity
paradox
Noun
-
In the early nineties, Pavement looked like a funny paradox, a crew of cherubs in collared shirts backed by Young, a long-haired, often shirtless showman pounding his drums.—
Hua Hsu,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
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Finally, at the Holistic level, leaders perceive systems in their entirety, integrating opposites, transcending paradox, and innovating by embracing complexity.—
Wyles Daniel,
USA Today,
17 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Incongruity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incongruity. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.
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