Amphiboly

//amˈfɪbəli// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ambiguous grammatical construction. countable, uncountable

    "1781, Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason," from John Meiklejohn 1855 translation Without this reflection I should make a very unsafe use of these conceptions, and construct pretended synthetical propositions which critical reason cannot acknowledge and which are based solely upon a transcendental amphiboly, that is, upon a substitution of an object of pure understanding for a phenomenon."

  2. 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

Etymology

From Old French amphibolie, from Latin amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, “ambiguity”).

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