Dictionary

ambiguously en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /æmˈbɪɡ.ju.əs.li/
• audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts? Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰíder. Proto-Italic *amβi- Latin ambi- Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin ambig(ō) Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Italic *-wos Latin -uus Latin ambiguuslbor. English ambiguous Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English ambiguously From ambiguous + -ly.

Meanings

1. In an ambiguous manner.
   • The bisexual name, such as Marion and Carol (and Evelyn and Vivian in England), is frequently a source of annoyance and embarrassment to the letter writer, who, if he does not know his ambiguously named correspondent personally […] 1947, Louise Pound, Kemp Malone, Arthur Garfield Kennedy, William Cabell Greet, American Speech:
   • Such has always been the case: from the vamptastic and scantily clad Theda Bara as Cleopatra (1917) to the milk bath, gold chains, and lesbian dancing of Cecil B. DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (1932) to the homoerotic bath of Crassus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960), antiquity has provided an ambiguously liberated outlet for exploring contemporary fascinations – regardless of their historicity. 2015, Alex McAuley, “16 Gateways to Vice: Drugs and Sex in Rome”, in Monica Cyrino, editor, Rome Season Two: Trial and Triumph, unnumbered page:
   • "The Stranger" was a dark, comely, youthful man's head, portentously looking out of a dark, shaded ground, and ambiguously smiling. 1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XXVI. A Walk; a Foreign Portrait; a Sail. And the End.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section I, page 479:

Forms

Deriveds

nonambiguously · unambiguously

Translations (12)

tr müphem (in an ambiguous manner) · ru нея́сно (in an ambiguous manner) · el αμφίσημα (in an ambiguous manner) · ru двусмы́сленно (in an ambiguous manner) · es ambiguamente (in an ambiguous manner) · ru неоднозна́чно (in an ambiguous manner) · eo ambigue (in an ambiguous manner) · gl ambiguamente (in an ambiguous manner) · ca ambiguament (in an ambiguous manner) · pt ambiguamente (in an ambiguous manner) · it ambiguamente (in an ambiguous manner) · ru неопределённо (in an ambiguous manner)