Word Finder - ambiguous

definition

Open to multiple interpretations.

example

The politician was criticized for his ambiguous statements and lack of precision.

synonyms

• equivocal

definition

Vague and unclear.

example

He gave an ambiguous answer.

definition

(of persons) Hesitant; uncertain; not taking sides.

Her songs are intentionally ambiguous.

The ending was more ambiguous, one in which the future of the world was in question.

There are a number of specific issues left somewhat ambiguous in the document.

The modern work is deliberately ambiguous.

By making the imagery ambiguous, I want to allow space for individual interpretation.

They thus occupied an ambiguous position on the borders of Judaism.

His policy, therefore, was necessarily tentative and ambiguous, and might very readily be misinterpreted.

It does seem rather ambiguous to say it is being spent on 'patient care'.

Do not be general or ambiguous, be specific and inviting.

But the context alone can determine the question; and that is often so ambiguous that a sure inference is impossible.

This was ambiguous and was interpreted variously.

Vincent rides cymbal crescendos and pensive pattering to equally tingling ends, his restrained electronic gurgles providing ambiguous accents.

If the language of Homer is so ambiguous where the use of writing would naturally be mentioned, we cannot expect to find more decisive references elsewhere.

In religion, which was his main interest, he was much influenced by Hegel, and appears somewhat in the ambiguous position of a sceptic anxious to believe.

Having been appointed by Pompey to the command in Greece, in obedience to an ambiguous oracle he crossed over to Euboea, where he died about 48, before the battle of Pharsalus.

But considered the e mail messages were too ambiguous to make a news story.

Though there are cut-and-dried instances when you should quickly and unilaterally give up on your existing product and iterate, other times will be more ambiguous or complicated.

This precipitate action aroused the mistrust of the Germans, and, in view of the ambiguous attitude of the prime minister towards the Czechs, led to a vote of censure being passed at a meeting of the German national council at Prague on July is.

As regards Papias's Exposition, which Lightfoot describes as "among the earliest forerunners of commentaries, partly explanatory, partly illustrative, on portions of the New Testament," we need here only remark that, whatever its exact form may have been - as to which the extant fragments still leave room for doubt - it was in conception expository of the historic meaning of Christ's more ambiguous Sayings, viewed in the light of definitely ascertained apostolic traditions bearing on the subject.

Biblical references to the implications of marriage vows are also ambiguous.

In 1787 he was misled by the prince's ambiguous assurances into denying the marriage with Mrs Fitzherbert.

Thucydides lays emphasis on the fact that in these meetings Athens as head of the league had no more than presidential authority, and the other members were called 614cµaxot (allies), a word, however, of ambiguous meaning and capable of including both free and subject allies.

Another supposition is that the author of the Liber Pontificals gives the papal interpretation of a grant that had been expressed by Pippin in ambiguous terms; and this view is supported by the history of the subsequent controversy between king and pope.

In the Priestly Code, c. 409 B.C., there is no reference to angels apart from the possible suggestion in the ambiguous plural in Genesis i.

The text of the Old 'Testament consists of consonants only, for the alphabet of the ancient Hebrews, like that of their Moabite, Aramaean and Phoenician neighbours, contained no vowels; the text of the interpretation consists of vowels and accents only - for vowel signs and accents had been invented by Jewish scholars between the 5th and 9th centuries A.D.; the text of the Old Testament -is complete in itself and intelligible, though ambiguous; but the text of the interpretation read by itself is unintelligible, and only becomes intelligible when read with the consonants (under, over, or in which they are inserted) of the text of the Old Testament.

In Scotland the secret of the Cumbernauld band came out; Montrose, Napier and other friends were imprisoned on the strength of certain ambiguous messages to Charles, and on the 27th of July, being called before parliament, Montrose said - " My resolution is to carry with me honour and fidelity to the grave."

Here two words at least are ambiguous, " principle " and " induction."

This judgment, founded as was afterwards admitted on insufficient knowledge, produced no effect; and, in the absence of any authoritative pronouncement, advantage was taken of the ambiguous language of the Ornaments Rubric to introduce into many churches practically the whole ceremonial use of lights as practised in the pre-Reformation Church.

Girls' modest clothing can be a bit of an ambiguous phrase.

A projective test asks the test-taker to interpret ambiguous situations.

They don't have the benefit of being able to ask you to clarify anything ambiguous or unclear, and you aren't there to elaborate.

The term as generally used, however, is highly ambiguous.

Here they do mange to unearth some rumblings in regards to the ambiguous terrorist group.

It is difficult to form a clear idea of this, first, because his influence was perpetually traversed by opposite tendencies; in the second place, because the force of circumstances compelled him, again and again, to shift his standpoint; and finally because personal considerations largely intermingled with his foreign policy, and made it more elusive and ambiguous than it need have been.

Also, it should be noted that some ethnic qualifications have been applied to different systems, and such names as Babylonian and Euboic are ambiguous; the normal value of a standard will therefore be used here rather than its name, in order to avoid confusion, unless specific names exist, such as kat and uten.

The use of such ambiguous images which result in bistable percepts has seen remarkable revival in neuroscience in the last few years.

The ambiguous relationship between the cult of immortality and philosophical Taoism is well illustrated in the attitude of Ko Hung to major Taoist writings.

The veteran actor makes his man of the cloth both admirable and ambiguous - the heart and soul of an unusually thoughtful film.

Consequently the position of the see was somewhat ambiguous, and Baudry is referred to both as archbishop and as bishop of Dol.

Not that the phrase ' visual poetics ' in itself provides answers, since it is ambiguous.

He married the daughter of Milo of Gloucester, and played an ambiguous part in Stephen's reign, siding at first with the king and afterwards with the empress.

He naturally shared Harley's downfall; and, though the loss of his salary might seem a poor reward for his constant support of the Hanoverian claim, it was little more than his ambiguous, not to say trimming, position must have led him to expect.

The inverse symbols -, = are ambiguous, and in fact are rarely used.

Like the Wycliffite Versions it is merely a secondary rendering from the Latin Vulgate, and it suffered from many of the defects which characterized these versions, extreme literalness, often stilted, ambiguous renderings, at times unintelligible except by a reference to the Latin original, as in Luke xxii.

But by his second wife, the heiress of Castile, John had left an only daughter, wife of Henry III., king of Castile and Leon, who also left descendants, and from his third but ambiguous union sprang the house of Beaufort, whose doubtful claims to his heirship passed with his great-granddaughter Margaret, by her husband Edmund Tudor, to their son Henry VII.

And the most useful distinction to emphasize is, not the ambiguous and misleading geographical one - derived from the places where the modern copies of the MSS.

This motive would account not only for the arrangement of the material, but also for certain changes in the language which seem intended to remove difficulties, and to interpret what is ambiguous or obscure.

Yet at the same time Nabokov teases the reader with ambiguous clues related to what will happen.

K.D. Lang is a country music singer whose appearance put off many fans and critics as being too ambiguous.

However, the evaluation data are still ambiguous when it comes to establishing a direct link between personality disorders and diet, aside from recommending the avoidance of alcoholic and stimulant beverages.