Oxymoron - A figure of speech that combines two usually
contradictory terms - 'living death' or 'bittersweet', for
example.
Litotes - A figure of speech by which an affirmation is made
indirectly by denying its opposite - 'no mean feat' or' not
averse to a drink'.
Irony - A subtley humourous perception of inconsistency or a
statement that is undermined by its context.
Paradox - A statement so surprisingly self-contradictory that
we seek out another context to make sense of it -
Wordsworth 'The Child is the Father of the Man'.
Antithesis - A contrast or oppostion to an argument.
I hope this is of use.
Litotes, derived from a Greek word meaning simple, is a
figure of speech which employs an understatement by using
double negatives or, in other words, positive statement is
expressed by negating its opposite expressions.
For example, using the expression not too bad for very
good is an understatement as well as a double negative
statement that confirms a positive idea by negating the
opposite. Similarly, saying She is not a beauty queen,
means She is ugly or saying I am not as young as I used to
be in order to avoid saying I am old. Litotes, therefore, is
an intentional use of understatement that renders an ironical
effect.
In everyday life, it is common to experience litotes in
conversations although not many people are aware of this
term and its usage. Below are a few examples of litotes from
daily conversations:
They do not seem the happiest couple around.
The ice cream was not too bad.
New York is not an ordinary city.
Your comments on politics are not useless.
You are not as young as you used to be.
I cannot disagree with your point of view.
William Shakespeare was not a bad playwright at all.
He is not the cleverest person I have ever met.
She is not unlike her mother.
Ken Adams is not an ordinary man
A million dollars is not a little amount.
You are not doing badly at all.
Your apartment is not unclean.
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a
way that their intended meaning is different from the actual
meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may
end up in quite a different way than what is generally
anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the
appearance and the reality.

Irony Examples from Literature
Example #1
We come across the following lines in Shakespeares Romeo
and Juliet, Act I, Scene V.
Go ask his name: if he be married.
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
Juliet commands her nurse to find out who Romeo was and
says if he were married, then her wedding bed would be her
grave. It is a verbal irony because the audience knows that
she is going to die on her wedding bed.
Let us analyze some interesting examples of irony from our
daily life:
I posted a video on YouTube about how boring and
useless YouTube is.
The name of Britains biggest dog was Tiny.
You laugh at a person who slipped stepping on a
banana peel and the next thing you know, you slipped
too.
The butter is as soft as a marble piece.
Oh great! Now you have broken my new camera.
Difference between Dramatic Irony and Situational Irony
Dramatic irony is a kind of irony in a situation, which the
writers frequently employ in their works. In situational irony,
both the characters and the audience are fully unaware of
the implications of the real situation. In dramatic irony, the
characters are oblivious of the situation but the audience is
not. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, we know much
before the characters that they are going to die.
In real life circumstances, irony may be comical, bitter or
sometimes unbearably offensive.
Antithesis, literal meaning opposite, is a rhetorical device in
which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to
achieve a contrasting effect.
Antithesis emphasizes the idea of contrast by parallel
structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses, i.e. the
structures of phrases and clauses are similar in order to draw
the attention of the listeners or readers. For example:
Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but
a giant step for mankind.
The use of contrasting ideas, a small step and a giant
step, in the sentence above emphasizes the significance of
one of the biggest landmarks of human history.
Some famous antithetical statements have become part of
our everyday speech and are frequently used in arguments
and discussions. Below is the list of some antithetical
statements:
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
Man proposes, God disposes.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.
Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit.
 Money is the root of all evils: poverty is the fruit of all Your enemys friend is your enemy.
goodness.
I am nobody.
You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart.
What a pity that youth must be wasted on the
The term Paradox is from the Greek word paradoxon that young. George Bernard Shaw
means contrary to expectations, existing belief or perceived
opinion. Wise fool

Truth is honey which is bitter.

It is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly
but may include a latent truth. It is also used to illustrate an
opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas. A
paradox is often used to make a reader think over an idea in
innovative way.
I can resist anything but temptation. Oscar Wilde
From the above examples of paradox, we can say that
paradox creates a humorous effect on the readers because of
its ridiculousness.

Examples of Paradox