as in paradox
someone or something with qualities or features that seem to conflict with one another
her outfit is a sartorial dichotomy: an elegant gown and ratty old tennis shoes
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Recent Examples of dichotomy
Stalter experienced this dichotomy firsthand as a kid who practiced tirelessly with her mom for a local poetry-declamation contest.
—
Judy Berman, Time, 10 July 2025
Each opens with the customary intro to the dichotomy of mild-mannered Clark Kent and the amazing stranger from the planet Krypton — Superman.
—Kambole Campbell, Vulture, 10 July 2025
Smartly, these films don’t create a phony dichotomy between tender humans and cold machinery.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
Published in the mid two-thousands, the book also shows what happened when immigrant groups were eventually allowed to move into these white-only areas after the towns’ populations had dwindled—and how other ethnicities triangulated themselves from the dichotomy of white and Black.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for dichotomy
Judy Berman, Time, 10 July 2025
Each opens with the customary intro to the dichotomy of mild-mannered Clark Kent and the amazing stranger from the planet Krypton — Superman.
—Kambole Campbell, Vulture, 10 July 2025
Smartly, these films don’t create a phony dichotomy between tender humans and cold machinery.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2025
Published in the mid two-thousands, the book also shows what happened when immigrant groups were eventually allowed to move into these white-only areas after the towns’ populations had dwindled—and how other ethnicities triangulated themselves from the dichotomy of white and Black.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for dichotomy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dichotomy
paradox
Noun
-
This scenario is the business travel paradox: your most eager travelers are often your most vulnerable.—
Julian Hayes II,
Forbes.com,
1 Aug. 2025
-
To settle the potato paradox, Zhang and his colleagues amassed more than 120 genomes from dozens of species spanning the potato, tomato, and Etuberosum groups and tried to piece together a narrative.—
Katherine J. Wu,
The Atlantic,
31 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dichotomy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dichotomy. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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