Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ambiguous or equivocal statement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The use of ambiguous phrases or statements.
- noun In logic, a sentence which is ambiguous from uncertainty with regard to its construction, but not from uncertainty with regard to the meaning of the words forming it.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A phrase, discourse, or proposition, susceptible of two interpretations; and hence, of uncertain meaning. It differs from
equivocation , which arises from the twofold sense of a single term.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic
Amphiboly .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ambiguous grammatical construction; e.g., `they are flying planes' can mean either that someone is flying planes or that something is flying planes
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It had been an excellent quaere to have posed the devil of Delphos, and must needs have forced him to some strange amphibology.
Religio Medici 2007
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This artifice is called equivocation or amphibology; it consists in the use of words that have a natural double meaning; it supposes in him who resorts to it the right to conceal the truth, a right superior to that of the tormentor who questions him.
Explanation of Catholic Morals A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals
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It had been an excellent Quære52 to have posed the Devil of Delphos, 53 and must needs have forced him to some strange amphibology.
Paras 36-70 1909
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He spoke of him afterwards as “that amphibolous being sitting calmly and unmoved on the throne of amphibology, while he cheats and deludes us by his double meaning, covert phraseology, and claps his hands when he sees us involved in his insidious figures of speech, as a spider rejoices over a captured fly.”
Luther and Other Leaders of the Reformation 1823-1886 1883
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Abbreviated by subsequent usage to _bête-'ni-pié_, the appellation has amphibology; -- for there are two words _ni_ in the patois, one signifying "to have," and the other "naked."
Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877
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Solomon looked astonished — “Xantippe, the wife of Socrates,” said he, “is recorded a termagant and a scold, but with her acetosity his philosophy enabled him to bear; but it is apodictical to me, that whoever has the misfortune to marry you will, without amphibology, have more occasion for patience and philosophy than ever Socrates had.”
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It had been an excellent quaere to have posed the devil of Delphos, and must needs have forced him to some strange amphibology.
Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend 1643
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AEtolians and Romans, about the winning of a battle they had with their joined forces obtained, made it of some importance, that in the Greek songs they had put the AEtolians before the Romans: if there be no amphibology in the words of the French translation.
The Essays of Montaigne — Complete Michel de Montaigne 1562
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AEtolians and Romans, about the winning of a battle they had with their joined forces obtained, made it of some importance, that in the Greek songs they had put the AEtolians before the Romans: if there be no amphibology in the words of the French translation.
The Essays of Montaigne — Volume 08 Michel de Montaigne 1562
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[114] and must needs have forced him to some strange amphibology.
Religio Medici 1605-1682 1923
jmjarmstrong commented on the word amphibology
JM quibbles over the usage of amphibology and amphiboly.
October 26, 2010
dkirby commented on the word amphibology
Have you ever met anyone who talks like this? :)
September 21, 2011