(a.) Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to signification; capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses; equivocal; as, an ambiguous course; an ambiguous expression.
Example Sentences:
(1) Along the spectrum of loyalties lie multiple loyalties and ambiguous loyalties, and the latter, if unresolved, create moral ambiguities.
(2) This examination has proved an important help in the diagnosis of all the cases of sexual ambiguity.
(3) Exogenous activators of PKC stimulate insulin secretion from B cells, but attempts to define a physiological role for PKC by using inhibitors of this enzyme have produced ambiguous results.
(4) The aza analogue (RS)-3-hydroxy-2,5-pyrrolidinedione-3-acetic acid (6) of the five-membered citric anhydride (2) was prepared in the sequence citric acid----2-phenyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-one-5,5-diacetic acid (1)----citric acid beta-amide (3)----6 and used to resolve ambiguities in the mechanism of the citrate synthase reaction.
(5) Results obtained with this analog can be ambiguous, since 2-DOG can be phosphorylated by hexokinases of animal cells.
(6) Ultrasound has also proven useful in evaluating patients with ambiguous genitalia, amenorrhea and suspected PID and also is an effective means of localizing intrauterine contraceptive devices.
(7) Authors have previously published April 1988 a lecture where they criticize the bad denomination "passed coma" full of ambiguity for public mind, to which "brain death" ought to be preferred.
(8) There were, though, large omissions and ambiguities that will need to be filled in and clarified as polling day nears.
(9) "Prostatic acid phosphatase" is a term that has been used widely and ambiguously to refer to acid phosphatase, which 1) is elevated in the sera of patients with various diseases of the prostate, 2) is inhibited by one or more specific inhibitors, 3) attacks one or more specific substrates, 4) has certain unique antigenic properties, 5) is extracted from homogenates of prostate, and 6) is obtained from prostate secretions, etc.
(10) We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4.” However, there is still some slight ambiguity about whether the deal is for Winter 2015 only.
(11) This ambiguity was resolved by using resealed ghosts, which are unable to incorporate oleic acid into phospholipids.
(12) This report describes a minicomputer-based translation system (TRANSOFT) that employs word order rearrangement followed by word-for-word translation and resolution of ambiguities based on context.
(13) Authors report a ring chromosome 18 (18 r) in a four year old boy, with low birth weight, retarded growth and development, microcephaly and plagiocephaly, horizontal nystagmus, ambiguous genitalia, clinodactyly of the fifth finger, distal axial triradius, whorls pattern in 8 fingers in dermatoglyphic.
(14) Membrane potential trajectories of 68 bulbar respiratory neurones from the peri-solitary and peri-ambigual areas of the brain-stem were recorded in anaesthetized cats to explore the synaptic influences of post-inspiratory neurones upon the medullary inspiratory network.
(15) As well, two-dimensional 15N-1H heteronuclear spectroscopy was used to resolve a number of ambiguities present in the homonuclear spectra due to resonance redundancies.
(16) The axon of the labeled bulbospinal neuron had axonal collaterals which were distributed within the region of the nucleus ambiguous of the ipsilateral medulla.
(17) Of the 406 tests there have been 85 positive, 296 negative and 25 ambiguous reports.
(18) In a second experiment schizophrenics were significantly different from the depressives in showing less inclination to select a metaphorical meaning to an ambiguous adjective in a sentence.
(19) Three-quarters of the sample was impaired on at least one of four discourse tests (knowing the alternate meanings of ambiguous words in context; getting the point of figurative or metaphoric expressions; bridging the inferential gaps between events in stereotyped social situations; and producing speech acts that express the apparent intentions of others).
(20) Yet, the apparent ambiguities of science confuse the courts, the juries, and the public.
Dubious
Definition:
(a.) Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined.
(a.) Occasioning doubt; not clear, or obvious; equivocal; questionable; doubtful; as, a dubious answer.
(a.) Of uncertain event or issue; as, in dubious battle.
Example Sentences:
(1) It’s impossible to automate fully the process of separating truth from falsehood, and it’s dubious to cede such control to for-profit media giants.
(2) The draw was enough to take England to the finals in Japan, where Beckham exorcised the demons of four years earlier by scoring the only goal (a dubiously awarded penalty) in the defeat of Argentina.
(3) But Blair's address - "history will forgive us" - was a dubious exercise in group therapy: the cheers smacked of pathetic gratitude, as he piously pardoned the legislators, as well as himself, for the catastrophe of Iraq.
(4) I drive past buildings that I know, or assume, to house bedsits, their stucco peeling like eczema, their window frames rattling like old bones, and I cannot help myself from picturing the scene within: a dubious pot on an equally dubious single ring, the female in charge of it half-heartedly stirring its contents at the same time as she files her nails, reads an old Vogue, or chats to some distant parent on the telephone.
(5) A dubious pattern is emerging of donations through front companies.
(6) The relationship of this metabolic aberration to the production of headache still remains dubious for various reasons.
(7) During his stints in the Bush and Obama administration Comey has continually taken authoritarian and factually dubious public stances both at odds with responsible public policy and sometimes the law.
(8) Today the overestimation of human understanding is reflected in a dogmatic adherence to specific professional or idealogically biased doctrines and in the dubious ideal of a purely empirical science with its limited applicability to mankind.
(9) It seems clear that even as we buy cheap clothes with dubious provenance, from an ethical standpoint, people want to do better.
(10) Their mechanism is dubious: swelling of mitochondria and intracellular lipidosis, which could signify cellular hypoxia, are rarely present.
(11) Imprecise definitions of these complications of necrotizing pancreatitis make inter-institutional comparisons of previously identified data dubious.
(12) Critics say this is part of a broader, dubious attempt to appease the Kremlin and boost bilateral trade.
(13) In his attempt to justify the unjustifiable, Mr Grieve has clutched at a fragile constitutional doctrine and adopted a deeply dubious legal course.
(14) Exporting what appear to be educational success stories is a dubious enterprise, because it is so easy to misread how another country's system works and to discount its cultural background.
(15) Observed retrospectively, in some cases death was the result of dubious indication.
(16) The Guardian’s own readers’ anthology of dubious deals – crusty rolls 40p, two for £1!
(17) Sensitivity (dubious + positive, after exclusion of inadequates) was 0.83 and dependent on histologic type (infiltrating = 0.87, intraductal = 0.68).
(18) The vice-president even made repeated trips to CIA headquarters in Langley to bully analysts into producing more hawkish reports, while Rumsfeld’s Pentagon sucked up highly dubious “evidence” from Iraqi exiles and ideological freelancers.
(19) This becomes very dubious when they are more numerous.
(20) The change in surface tension did not correlate with a change in lung retractive forces or with lung lipid content and was, therefore, of dubious biological significance.