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AMBIGUITY: Dictionary Entry and Meaning

Pronunciation:  `ambu'gyooitee

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
  2. [n]  an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context
 
 Synonyms: equivocalness
 
 Antonyms: unambiguity, unequivocalness
 
 See Also: amphibology, amphiboly, double entendre, equivocation, evasiveness, expression, lexical ambiguity, locution, loophole, parisology, polysemy, prevarication, saying, unclearness

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
\Am`bi*gu"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Ambiguities}. [L.
ambiguitas, fr. ambiguus: cf. F. ambiguit['e].]
The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or
uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of
language, arising from its admitting of more than one
meaning; an equivocal word or expression.
      No shadow of ambiguity can rest upon the course to be
      pursued.                                 --I. Taylor.
      The words are of single signification, without any
      ambiguity.                               --South.
 
Thesaurus Terms
 
 Related Terms: ambivalence, amphibologism, amphibology, amphiboly, antinomy, asymmetry, biformity, bifurcation, cavil, conjugation, counterword, dichotomy, disproportion, disproportionateness, dodge, double entendre, double meaning, doubleness, double-talk, doublethink, doubling, dualism, duality, duplexity, duplication, duplicity, equivocacy, equivocal, equivocality, equivocalness, equivocation, equivoque, evasion, haggling, hair-splitting, halving, hedge, heresy, heterodoxy, heterogeneity, impenetrability, imprecision, inapprehensibility, inarticulateness, incognizability, incoherence, incommensurability, incompatibility, incomprehensibility, inconclusiveness, incongruity, inconsistency, inconsonance, indefiniteness, indistinctness, inscrutability, irony, irreconcilability, Janus, nonconformability, nonconformity, numinousness, obscurity, oxymoron, pairing, paradox, polarity, polysemant, polysemousness, portmanteau word, pun, quibbling, ramblingness, self-contradiction, shift, squinting construction, subterfuge, tergiversation, twinning, two-facedness, twoness, uncertainty, unconformability, unconformity, unconnectedness, unfathomableness, unintelligibility, unknowability, unorthodoxy, unsearchableness, vagueness, weasel word
 

 

 

 

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