student asking question

What does "bittersweet" mean? It seems that two antonyms are combined to make one word, what are the other words that have similar structure of this one?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Bittersweet" here describes feeling both happy and sad about a situation. "Bittersweet" can also describe something that tastes both bitter and sweet, like dark chocolate. "Bittersweet" is considered an "oxymoron", which is a word or term made of two opposite words. Examples of other oxymorons are "deafening silence", "amazingly awful" and "living dead". Most oxymorons are short phrases, "bittersweet" is the only commonly used oxymoron that is one word. Ex: Moving was bittersweet because I missed my old friends, but I was excited to make new friends. Ex: Graduation was bittersweet because I was happy to finish college, but was sad that it was over.

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