What's the difference between doubtful and equivocal?

Doubtful


Definition:

  • (a.) Not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating in belief; also used, metaphorically, of the body when its action is affected by such a state of mind; as, we are doubtful of a fact, or of the propriety of a measure.
  • (a.) Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like.
  • (a.) Characterized by ambiguity; dubious; as, a doubtful expression; a doubtful phrase.
  • (a.) Of uncertain issue or event.
  • (a.) Fearful; apprehensive; suspicious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a further study 1082 patients with a negative or doubtful result of the physical examination were investigated using ultrasound.
  • (2) p-Chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) also reduced the response to levodopa but the usefulness of PCPA as an inhibitor of 5HT synthesis in these experiments in doubtful since it also inhibited the hypoglycaemic effects of 5HTP and i.c.v.
  • (3) There is no doubt that new techniques in molecular biology will continue to evolve so that the goal of gene therapy for many disorders may be possible in the future.
  • (4) I never had any doubt that the vast majority of people engaged in "business" are not the exploiters but the exploited.
  • (5) There is no doubt that psychological, reactive and environmental factors do play a certain role too.
  • (6) Paul Doyle Kick-off Sunday midday Venue St Mary’s Stadium Last season Southampton 2 Leicester City 2 Live Sky Sports 1 Referee Michael Oliver This season G 18, Y 60, R 1, 3.44 cards per game Odds H 5-6 A 4-1 D 5-2 Southampton Subs from Taylor, Martina, Stephens, Davis, Rodriguez, Sims, Ward-Prowse Doubtful Bertrand, Davis, Van Dijk (all match fitness) Injured Boufal (knee, Jan), Hesketh (ankle, Feb), Targett (hamstring, Feb), Austin (shoulder, Mar), Pied (knee, Jun), Gardos (knee, unknown) Suspended None Form DWLLLL Discipline Y37 R2 Leading scorer Austin 6 Leicester City Subs from Zieler, Hamer, Wasilewski, Gray, Fuchs, James, Okazaki, Hernández, Kapustka, King Doubtful None Injured None Suspended None Unavailable Amartey, Mahrez, Slimani (Africa Cup of Nations) Form LDLWDL Discipline Y44 R1 Leading scorers Slimani, Vardy 5
  • (7) Without that, and without undertaking big changes, the service's future may fall into doubt, he says.
  • (8) This is welcome news but it needs to be borne in mind that the manufacturing sector is still far from racing ahead and serious doubts remain about the strength of demand for manufactured goods over the medium term, particularly once stimulative measures start being withdrawn.
  • (9) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (10) The mean age of gravidae with doubtful smears is about 6 years beyond the mean age of gravidae with positive smears.
  • (11) I have no doubt that both the Conservative and Labour parties will maintain throughout the course of the election campaign their determination to build four submarines and 160 warheads,” he says.
  • (12) There is little doubt that when it opens next Thursday, One New Change will be jam-packed with City workers and tourists.
  • (13) We feel that they, as presented, leave serious doubt as to the validity of their conclusions.
  • (14) Contact guidance has been suggested to direct NC cells ventrally in the trunk, but this has been subject to doubt (see Newgreen and Erickson, 1986, Int.
  • (15) Although “there are serious questions and doubts in our minds over the government’s seven-day working agenda … it isn’t clear what this strike action is for and what the position of the BMA is now,” he told the Guardian.
  • (16) There is no doubt that people were killed quite deliberately by police officers.
  • (17) Other critics, even if they were unsure of the lasting relevance, were willing to give Tillmans the benefit of the doubt.
  • (18) We interpret this exaggerated positive attitude as an attempt to overcome inner fears, doubts and ambivalences.
  • (19) Another forward, Manchester United's Danny Welbeck, is a major doubt for the game with a knee complaint.
  • (20) Coghlin said: “There is no doubt that, as a consequence of the personalities involved, these proceedings attracted a very considerable degree of media publicity both before and, to a certain degree, subsequent to the trial.

Equivocal


Definition:

  • (a.) (Literally, called equally one thing or the other; hence:) Having two significations equally applicable; capable of double interpretation; of doubtful meaning; ambiguous; uncertain; as, equivocal words; an equivocal sentence.
  • (a.) Capable of being ascribed to different motives, or of signifying opposite feelings, purposes, or characters; deserving to be suspected; as, his actions are equivocal.
  • (a.) Uncertain, as an indication or sign; doubtful.
  • (n.) A word or expression capable of different meanings; an ambiguous term; an equivoque.

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.