frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

paradoxical
adj. contradictory, self-contradictory, conflicting,
oxymoronic, impossible, improbable, incongruous, illogical,
inconsistent, absurd, ambiguous, confusing, equivocal,
enigmatic, puzzling, baffling, incomprehensible, bewildering,
perplexing, mysterious, problematic: It would be true, though
it might sound paradoxical, to say that the Norman Conquest made
England Saxon.
paragon n. epitome, archetype, model, prototype, quintessence, pattern,
standard, exemplar, ideal, beau id‚al, criterion: He had
previously regarded Michael as a paragon of virtue and was
deeply shocked by the revelations.
parallel adj. 1 similar, corresponding, congruent, analogous,
analogic(al), correspondent, like, matching, homologous,
coordinate, equivalent, coequal, proportional, proportionate,
pari passu, mutatis mutandis, in proportion, uniform;
contemporary or cotemporary, contemporaneous or cotemporaneous:
The situation in Northern Ireland could be compared with a
parallel situation in Lebanon.
--n. 2 analogue, match, homologue, equivalent, complement,
counterpart, equal, coequal: Campbell found many parallels
among the legendary heroes of other cultures. 3 analogy,
parallelism, equivalence, complementarity, relationship,
kinship, correspondence, resemblance, likeness, similarity,
symmetry, equality, coequality, parity, correlation; proportion,
balance, equiponderance, equipoise, counterbalance, offset: One
can draw parallels between the human arm, the fish's fin, and
the bird's wing. By way of parallel, consider the flood in the
Bible and that in the Gilgamesh epic.
--v. 4 correspond to or with, match, equate to or with, be
likened to, correlate to or with, compare with or to, imitate,
repeat, echo, iterate, reiterate, duplicate, follow, agree with;
keep pace with, conform (to), balance, set off, offset, even off
or up, be accompanied by, coincide with, Colloq jibe with: In
many respects, your attitudes towards life parallel mine when I
was your age. A decrease in the rate of inflation supposedly
parallels a rise in interest rates.