Ambiguity

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ambiguity \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.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           No shadow of ambiguity can rest upon the course to be
           pursued.                                 --I. Taylor.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The words are of single signification, without any
           ambiguity.                               --South.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ambiguity
       n 1: an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its
            context
       2: unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning [syn:
          {equivocalness}] [ant: {unambiguity}, {unambiguity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  92 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambiguity":
     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
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  AMBIGUITY, contracts, construction. When au expression has been used in an
  instrument of writing which may be understood in more than one sense, it is
  said there is an ambiguity,
       2. There are two sorts of ambiguities of words, ambiguitas latens and
  ambiguitas patens.
       3. The first occurs when the deed or instrument is sufficiently certain
  and free from ambiguity, but the ambiguity is produced by something
  extrinsic, or some collateral matter out of the instrument; for example, if
  a man devise property to his cousin A B, and he has two cousins of that
  name, in such case parol evidence will be received to explain the ambiguity.
       4. The second or patent ambiguity occurs when a clause in a deed, will,
  or other instrument, is so defectively expressed, that a court of law, which
  has to put a construction on the instrument, is unable to collect the
  intention of the party. In such case, evidence of the declaration of the
  party cannot be submitted to explain his intention, and the clause will be
  void for its uncertainty. In Pennsylvania, this rule is somewhat qualified.
  3 Binn. 587; 4 Binn. 482. Vide generally, Bac. Max. Reg. 23; 1 Phu. Ev. 410
  to 420; 3 Stark. Ev. 1021 ; I Com. Dig. 575; Sudg. Vend. 113. The civil law
  on this subject will be found in Dig. lib. 50, t. 17, 1. 67; lib. 45, t. 1,
  1. 8; and lib. 22, t. 1, 1. 4.