ambiguous
unclear, having more than one meaning
TRANSLATION
mehrdeutig, unklar, verschwommen, zweideutig
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Joe was in court fighting a ticket for parking his car in a restricted area. The judge asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. "They should not put up such ambiguous notices", said Joe. "It said, FINE FOR PARKING HERE."
Did you
know?
Wordwise:
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin ambiguus, from ambigere to be undecided, from ambi- + agere to drive
Date: 1528
1 a : doubtful or uncertain especially from obscurity or indistinctness
2 : capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or ways
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the 500 words used most in the English language each have an average of 23 different meanings. The word "round," for instance, has 70 distinctly different meanings. It is often the case that a written statement could be interpreted in several ways by different individuals, thus making the statement subjective rather than objective.
Lewis Carroll had wonderful things to say about ambiguity:
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - nothing more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin ambiguus, from ambigere to be undecided, from ambi- + agere to drive
Date: 1528
1 a : doubtful or uncertain especially from obscurity or indistinctness
2 : capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or ways
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the 500 words used most in the English language each have an average of 23 different meanings. The word "round," for instance, has 70 distinctly different meanings. It is often the case that a written statement could be interpreted in several ways by different individuals, thus making the statement subjective rather than objective.
Lewis Carroll had wonderful things to say about ambiguity:
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - nothing more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
