Meanings
comparative more ambiguously · superlative most ambiguously
- In an ambiguous manner.
"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 4792 more examples
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 SpeechSuch 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
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ent-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂énts?
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂m̥bʰí
- Proto-Italic*amβi-
- Latinambi-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂eǵ-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂éǵeti
- Proto-Italic*agō
- Latinagō
- Latinambig(ō)
- Latinambiguu
- Englishambiguous
- Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
- Proto-Germanic*līką
- Englishambiguously
Translations
Catalan ambiguament
- ambiguamentin an ambiguous manner
Esperanto ambigue
- ambiguein an ambiguous manner
Greek αμφίσημα
- αμφίσημα (amfísima)in an ambiguous manner
Italian ambiguamente
- ambiguamentein an ambiguous manner
Portuguese ambiguamente
- ambiguamentein an ambiguous manner
Russian двусмы́сленно, нея́сно
- двусмы́сленно (dvusmýslenno)in an ambiguous manner
- нея́сно (nejásno)in an ambiguous manner
- неопределённо (neopredeljónno)in an ambiguous manner
- неоднозна́чно (neodnoznáčno)in an ambiguous manner
Spanish ambiguamente
- ambiguamentein an ambiguous manner
Turkish müphem
- müphemin an ambiguous manner
Cite this entry
ambiguously. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambiguously
“ambiguously.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambiguously. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ambiguously,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ambiguously.
Source: ambiguously on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.