EQUIVOCAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Equivocal

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɪkwˈɪvəkəl/ Listen

adjective

Equivocal adj.

1.

(Literally, called equally one thing or the other; hence:) Having two significations equally applicable; capable of double interpretation; of doubtful meaning; ambiguous; uncertain; as, equivocal words; an equivocal sentence. "For the beauties of Shakespeare are not of so dim or equivocal a nature as to be visible only to learned eyes."

2.

Capable of being ascribed to different motives, or of signifying opposite feelings, purposes, or characters; deserving to be suspected; as, his actions are equivocal. "Equivocal repentances."

3.

Uncertain, as an indication or sign; doubtful. "How equivocal a test."

Equivocal chord (Mus.), a chord which can be resolved into several distinct keys; one whose intervals, being all minor thirds, do not clearly indicate its fundamental tone or root; the chord of the diminished triad, and the diminished seventh.

Synonyms: Ambiguous; doubtful; uncertain; indeterminate. Equivocal, Ambiguous. We call an expression ambiguous when it has one general meaning, and yet contains certain words which may be taken in two different senses; or certain clauses which can be so connected with other clauses as to divide the mind between different views of part of the meaning intended. We call an expression equivocal when, taken as a whole, it conveys a given thought with perfect clearness and propriety, and also another thought with equal propriety and clearness. Such were the responses often given by the Delphic oracle; as that to Croesus when consulting about a war with Persia: "If you cross the Halys, you will destroy a great empire." This he applied to the Persian empire, which lay beyond that river, and, having crossed, destroyed his own empire in the conflict. What is ambiguous is a mere blunder of language; what is equivocal is usually intended to deceive, though it may occur at times from mere inadvertence. Equivocation is applied only to cases where there is a design to deceive.

noun

Equivocal n. A word or expression capable of different meanings; an ambiguous term; an equivoque. "In languages of great ductility, equivocals like that just referred to are rarely found."

See images of 'Equivocal'

Etymology of 'Equivocal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Equivocal" Quotes from Famous Books

... the king of Prussia, returning to Berlin, began to put his army on a war footing. The emigrants, triumphing in the engagement they had entered into, increased in numbers. The courts of Europe, with the exception of England, sent in equivocal adhesions to the courts of Berlin and Vienna. The noise of the declaration of Pilnitz burst forth, and died away in Paris in the midst of the fetes in honour of the ...

— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... O pale equivocal hour, whose suppliant feet Haunt the mute reaches of the sleeping wind, Art thou a watcher stealing to entreat Prayer and sepulture for thy ...

— Artemis to Actaeon and Other Worlds • Edith Wharton

... words happen to be still dubious, we may establish their meaning from the context; with which it may be of singular use to compare a word, or a sentence, whenever they are ambiguous, equivocal, or intricate. Thus the proeme, or preamble, is often called in to help the construction of an act of parliament. Of the same nature and use is the comparison of a law with other laws, that are made by the same legislator, that have some affinity with the subject, or that expressly ...

— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... regards the moral equality of the sexes in marriage, the position of Christian authorities was sometimes equivocal. One of the greatest of the Fathers, St. Basil, in the latter half of the fourth century, distinguished between adultery and fornication as committed by a married man; if with a married woman, ...

— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... felt along the line of the Elysian shades, when the near arrival of G.D. was announced by no equivocal indications. From their seats of Asphodel arose the gentler and the graver ghosts-poet, or historian—of Grecian or of Roman lore—to crown with unfading chaplets the half-finished love-labours of their unwearied scholiast. Him Markland expected—him Tyrwhitt hoped to encounter—him ...

— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 • Charles Lamb

Copyright © 2025 Free Translator.org