- 1歧義；模稜兩可。課堂、語言學多說「歧義」；日常說事情可以有兩種理解，用「模稜兩可」。
Ambiguity is the state of not being clear because something can be read in more than one way, or because you cannot tell which meaning is meant. A sentence can have an ambiguity (I saw her duck — a bird, or her head going down?). A look, a law, or a promise can have it too, when people cannot agree what it commits you to. We also say ambiguities for the unclear bits themselves. In school it often means double meaning in language. In news and it can be a polite way to say someone is leaving things unclear on purpose. It is a fairly formal noun; in simple talk people say it is unclear or it can mean two things. Though actually, unclear and ambiguous are not perfect friends: something can be unclear because it is vague or missing information, without offering two clean readings. Ambiguity is specially about that fork in the meaning.
組成From Middle English and Old French, from Latin ambiguitas, from ambiguus. The Latin verb is ambi- (“on both sides”) + agere (“to drive, to move”), so “driven both ways,” then “doubtful.”
同家族的字
- ambiguousthe adjective; this is the noun
- ambiguouslythe adverb
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
ambiguitynoun/æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/
- 1
The state of being ambiguous; the state of leaving room for more than one interpretation.
- His speech was made with such great ambiguity that neither supporter nor opponent could be certain of his true position.
- Whan this ſayd monument diſcouered was / Suche a ſuauite and fragrant odoure / Aſcended from the corps by ſingular grace / Paſſyng all worldly ſwetnes and ſauour / That all there present that day and hour / Suppoſed they had ben / in the felicite / Of erthely paradiſe / without ambiguite.
- 2
An instance of this state: words or statements that are open to more than one interpretation, explanation or meaning, especially if that meaning cannot be determined from the context.
- If two persons bore the same name, and confusion was likely to be caused, ambiguity was avoided by adding the name of the father[…]
- For people who would rather face a plague of locusts than permit an avoidable ambiguity, this is like having their underwear twisted. You may think we should say to such people, “Get a life.” By all means tell them that. I’m neither making these rules up nor trying to enforce them; my job in this book is to point out to you what seems to be the current state of the language and its speakers."
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。