Amphibology
/amfɪˈbɒlədʒi/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Amphiboly. archaic, countable, uncountable
"In Athens men learn'd […] to resolve a sophisticall argument, and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words, captiously enterlaced together […]"
- 2 an ambiguous grammatical construction; e.g., ‘they are flying planes’ can mean either that someone is flying planes or that something is flying planes wordnet
Example
More examples"In Athens men learn'd […] to resolve a sophisticall argument, and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words, captiously enterlaced together […]"
Etymology
From French amphibologie, from late Latin amphibologia, earlier amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, “ambiguity”).