Search Result for "ambiguity": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context;

2. unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning;
[syn: ambiguity, equivocalness]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

ambiguity n 1: an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context 2: unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning [syn: ambiguity, equivocalness] [ant: unambiguity, unequivocalness]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

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.