enantiosis

noun

Meaning

A rhetorical figure of speech that uses irony or contradiction to assert the opposite of what is literally stated.

Examples

  • The poet employed enantiosis to suggest that the silence in the room was deafening.
  • By calling the chaotic event a model of order, the critic relied on enantiosis to make her point.

Synonyms: irony, paradox, antiphrasis, oxymoron