device vs paradox

device

noun
  • A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. 

  • A peripheral device; an item of hardware. 

  • An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb 

  • A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device. 

  • An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark. 

  • A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively. 

  • Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one. 

  • An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience. 

paradox

noun
  • A state in which one is logically compelled to contradict oneself. 

  • A claim that two apparently contradictory ideas are true. 

  • An unanswerable question or difficult puzzle, particularly one which leads to a deeper truth. 

  • The use of counterintuitive or contradictory statements (paradoxes) in speech or writing. 

  • An apparently self-contradictory statement, which can only be true if it is false, and vice versa. 

  • A person or thing having contradictory properties. 

  • A counterintuitive conclusion or outcome. 

  • A thing involving contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. 

  • The practice of giving instructions that are opposed to the therapist's actual intent, with the intention that the client will disobey or be unable to obey. 

How often have the words device and paradox occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )