(n.) The use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few; indirect or roundabout language; a periphrase.
Example Sentences:
(1) His avoidance of the circumlocutions favoured by most politicians led to a popular misconception that he is a straight shooter.
(2) Anomic aphasics produced the fewest phonemic errors and the most multiword circumlocutions; this pattern suggests minimal word-production difficulty in anomic aphasia relative to the other aphasia syndromes.
(3) On several occasions, when the patient failed to name a picture which happened to be lexicalized by a polysemous word, a residual covert word form could still operate as a link between different meanings of the target word; then, the patient produces a word or a circumlocution related to one meaning which was not the illustrated meaning.
(4) Semantically-related errors and circumlocutions characterized the naming of aphasic and demented patients, while phonemic errors were common only in aphasics.
(5) In addition, the relative distribution of the three most prominent naming errors-phonemic errors, semantic errors, and multiword circumlocutions-tended to distinguish the two anomic subgroups from the other aphasia subgroups.
(6) When subjects did not respond correctly to phonemic cueing, a significantly greater number of phonemic errors were produced, with a concurrent decline in related words and extended circumlocutions.
(7) With increasing age subjects produced more circumlocutions and fewer semantic errors.
(8) Behind these circumlocutions and evasions lie the unmistakable reality that this republican coronation puts an end to the hopes that were generated by the biggest upheaval of the Arab spring.
(9) Mr Micawber was a kindly man, albeit one given to circumlocution and financial mismanagement.
(10) He has mastered the art of never mentioning the treasurer's name in public, exhausting every possible circumlocution.
(11) Semantic errors (i.e., circumlocutions, semantically related associates, and nominalizations) and perceptual errors increase with age.
(12) Data for the parameter of semantics revealed a significantly greater occurrence of hesitations than circumlocutions, verbal paraphasias, or revisions.
Equivocate
Definition:
(a.) To use words of equivocal or doubtful signification; to express one's opinions in terms which admit of different senses, with intent to deceive; to use ambiguous expressions with a view to mislead; as, to equivocate is the work of duplicity.
(v. t.) To render equivocal or ambiguous.
Example Sentences:
(1) However six equivocal studies were observed in profoundly jaundiced patients with bilirubin levels above 400 mumol l-1 due to difficulties in differentiating extrahepatic obstruction from severe intrahepatic cholestasis.
(2) The great clinical value of the procedure is shown by the following findings:X-ray-negative lesions--including 2 cases of carcinoma--were found in 35 percent of the cases, radiologically demonstrated lesions could be defined more precisely in 18 percent, and the presence of colonic lesions could be ruled out in 11 percent in spite of equivocal X-ray findings.
(3) Differentiation of thrombi from slow flow in the pulmonary arteries, sometimes observed in the presence of pulmonary arterial hypertension, can be equivocal.
(4) Conversely, the presence of unchanged intracellular or intraluminal O-acetyl sialic acid may help to exclude a diagnosis of malignancy in equivocal cases.
(5) Interpretation of scans was equivocal in another 18% of patients due to undetectable ascension of the tracer to the uterus.
(6) Endpoint events were also more common in patients with an abnormal (positive or equivocal) preoperative exercise test response than in those with a negative response (27% vs 14%); however, preoperative exercise results were not statistically significant independent predictors of cardiac risk.
(7) Radiographic appearances of tumours of the paranasal sinus are often equivocal.
(8) Of these 65 donors, 46 had normal studies, nine had pericardial effusions, five had mild septal hypokinesia with otherwise normal function, four had equivocal mitral valve prolapse, and only one heart could not be visualized.
(9) Different procurement systems have already made England a slightly "different country" for Scottish suppliers, many of whom are more concerned about Cameron's equivocal attitude towards the European Union.
(10) Tumor rates are given for each positive or equivocal effect observed in 67 studies judged to show carcinogenic effects and in the 17 studies that show equivocal effects.
(11) Conflicting and equivocal data have characterized self-reports of depression and other affects in alcoholics.
(12) None of the lesions with histologic features equivocal for HPV infection had detectable HPV DNA by in situ hybridization, though some did contain HPV DNA sequences as ascertained by filter hybridization analysis.
(13) While it is unlikely that Zardari's government had any direct link to the Mumbai attacks, there is every reason to believe that its failure effectively to crack down on the country's jihadi network, and its equivocation with figures such as Hafiz Muhammad Syed, means that atrocities of the kind we saw last week are likely to continue.
(14) Avascular lesions were the main cause for equivocal or incorrect angiographic diagnoses.
(15) A regular histologic examination was equivocal for evidence of HPV infection in four of the seven cases.
(16) No changes in regional contractility occurred with propranolol except for a minimal increase in hypokinesis in one patient at each dosage and equivocal development of a new area of slight hypokinesis in one patient and minimal apex of dyskinesis in another at the higher dosage.
(17) Enterobacteriaceae that yield zones of inhibition equal to or greater than 20 mm in diameter around 50-mug discs of carbenicillin are designated as sensitive to the drug; isolates that yield zones measuring from 18 to 19 mm in diameter are reported as of equivocal (intermediate) susceptibility to the drug, whereas those enterobacterial isolates that are characterized by zones of inhibition of 17 mm or less in diameter are interpreted as resistant to carbenicillin.
(18) Of the 47 compounds that were positive or equivocal in the alkaline unwinding assay, only carbon tetrachloride and prednisolone were negative in the mouse lymphoma assay, while 12 of the 19 compounds that were negative in the alkaline unwinding assay were positive in the mouse lymphoma assay.
(19) Cavernography should be used in the equivocal cases without hematuria or signs of fracture.
(20) It was observed that 2,4-D, dimecron, and vitavax were clastogenic, but the results obtained with benomyl and monocrotophos were equivocal.