Ambiguous

3 definitions found

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

  Ambiguous \Am*big"u*ous\, a. [L. ambiguus, fr. ambigere to
     wander about, waver; amb- + agere to drive.]
     Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to
     signification; capable of being understood in either of two
     or more possible senses; equivocal; as, an ambiguous course;
     an ambiguous expression.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           What have been thy answers? What but dark,
           Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding? --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Doubtful; dubious; uncertain; unsettled; indistinct;
          indeterminate; indefinite. See {Equivocal}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ambiguous
       adj 1: open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature
              or significance; or (often) intended to mislead; "an
              equivocal statement"; "the polling had a complex and
              equivocal (or ambiguous) message for potential female
              candidates"; "the officer's equivocal behavior
              increased the victim's uneasiness"; "popularity is an
              equivocal crown"; "an equivocal response to an
              embarrassing question" [syn: {equivocal}] [ant: {unequivocal}]
       2: having more than one possible meaning; "ambiguous words";
          "frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents were
          unable to assemble the toy" [ant: {unambiguous}]
       3: having no intrinsic or objective meaning; not organized in
          conventional patterns; "an ambiguous situation with no
          frame of reference"; "ambiguous inkblots"

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

  123 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambiguous":
     Greek to one, agnostic, amalgamated, ambivalent, amphibious,
     amphibolic, amphibological, amphibolous, antinomic,
     beyond understanding, blended, capricious, chancy, changeable,
     combined, complex, composite, compound, compounded, confusable,
     conglomerate, cryptic, dappled, dicey, double-faced, doubtful,
     doubting, dubious, eclectic, enigmatic, enigmatical, equivocal,
     equivocatory, erratic, fickle, fifty-fifty, fishy, foggy,
     half-and-half, hesitant, hesitating, heterogeneous, impenetrable,
     inarticulate, incalculable, incognizable, incoherent,
     incomprehensible, inconclusive, indecisive, indefinite,
     indemonstrable, indeterminate, indiscriminate, indistinct,
     inscrutable, intricate, ironic, irresolute, jumbled, many-sided,
     medley, mingled, miscellaneous, misleading, misty, mixed, motley,
     multifaceted, multinational, multiracial, multivocal, mysterious,
     numinous, obscure, opaque, oracular, oxymoronic, paradoxical,
     past comprehension, patchy, pluralistic, polysemantic, polysemous,
     problematic, promiscuous, puzzling, questionable, rambling,
     scrambled, self-contradictory, skeptical, suspect, syncretic,
     tenebrous, thrown together, touch-and-go, unaccountable, uncertain,
     unclear, unconfirmable, unconnected, unconvinced, undefined,
     undependable, undivinable, unfathomable, unforeseeable,
     unintelligible, unknowable, unpersuaded, unpredictable, unprovable,
     unreliable, unsearchable, unsettled, unsure, unverifiable, vague,
     variable, varied, wavering, whimsical