Statements or situations that seem to contradict themselves but may actually be true, or things that seem impossible but happen anyway.
From Greek 'paradoxos' (contrary to expectation), from 'para-' (against) + 'doxa' (opinion or belief). The word entered English in the 1500s.
The grandfather paradox in time travel—you go back and prevent your grandfather from meeting your grandmother, so you're never born, but then how did you go back in time?—shows why paradoxes break people's brains and why physicists still argue about time travel.
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