Ambiguity

English

Noun

Ambiguity (countable and uncountable; plural ambiguities)

1. (countable) Something liable to more than one interpretation, explanation or meaning, if that meaning etc cannot be determined from its context.

   His speech was made with such great ambiguity that neither supporter nor opponent could be certain of his true position.

2. (uncountable) The state of being ambiguous.

Synonyms

• (state of being ambiguous): ambiguousness, imprecision

Antonyms

• unambiguity

Adjectives for Ambiguity

unfortunate; verbal; apparent; subtle; disturbing; deliberate; undesirable.

Verbs for Ambiguity

admit-; brush away-; burden by-; clear away-; cling to-; develop-; disentangle-; dissolve-; distinguish-; express-; obscure with-; oppress with-; reduce-; remove-; -clouds; -deludes; -occurs; -puzzles; -vanishes.

Related terms

• ambiguous

Thesaurus

Janus; ambivalence; amphibologism; amphibology; amphiboly; antinomy; asymmetry; biformity; bifurcation; cavil; conjugation; counterword; dichotomy; disproportion; disproportionateness; dodge; double entendre; double meaning; double-talk; doubleness; 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; 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

Pronunciation

• IPA: /æmbɪɡˈjuɪtiː/