ambiguous

1. 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”

   Synonymsequivocal

   Similardoubleevasiveindeterminate
2. 2.

   having more than one possible meaning

   “ambiguous words”

   “frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents were unable to assemble the toy”

   Antonymsunambiguous

   Similardouble-barreleddouble-edgedenigmaticleft-handedmultivalentpolysemousuncertain
3. 3.

   having no intrinsic or objective meaning; not organized in conventional patterns

   “an ambiguous situation with no frame of reference”

   “ambiguous inkblots”

   Similarunstructured

   psychology

Questions about ambiguous

What does ambiguous mean?

ambiguous means "open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature or significance; or (often) intended to mislead". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ambiguous?

ambiguous has 4 syllables: am-big-u-ous. The stress falls on "big". In IPA it is /æmˈbɪɡjuəs/.

What is another word for ambiguous?

Close synonyms include equivocal. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of ambiguous?

The recorded antonyms are unambiguous.

Is ambiguous a common word?

ambiguous is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.