Equivocate

//ɪˈkwɪvəˌkeɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To speak using double meaning; to speak ambiguously, unclearly or doubtfully, with intent to deceive; to vacillate in one's answers, responding with equivoques. intransitive

    "Knock. Knock, knock. Who's there in th'other Deuils Name? Faith here's an Equiuocator, that could ſweare in both the Scales againſt eyther Scale, who committed Treaſon enough for Gods ſake, yet could not equiuocate to Heauen: oh come in, Equiuocator."

  2. 2
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information wordnet
  3. 3
    To render equivocal or ambiguous. transitive

    "He equivocated his vow by a mental reservation"

Synonyms

All synonyms
dodgeevadeprevaricateprevaricatequibbleshuffle

Example

More examples

"I knew that Tom would equivocate."

Etymology

From Late Middle English equivocaten, from Medieval Latin aequivocātus, perfect passive participle of aequivocō (“I am called by the same name”), from Late Latin aequivocus (“ambiguous, equivocal”). Compare French équivoque.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.