amphiboly

American  

[am-fib-uh-lee] / æmˈfɪb ə li /

noun

amphibolies plural

1. ambiguity of speech, especially from uncertainty of the grammatical construction rather than of the meaning of the words, as in The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• amphibolies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of amphiboly

1580–90; < Latin amphibolia < Greek. See amphibolous, -y ³

Example Sentences

Of the Equivocal Nature or Amphiboly of the Conceptions of Reflection from the Confusion of the Transcendental with the Empirical use of the Understanding.

From The Critique of Pure Reason by Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow