(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.
Purpose
Definition:
(n.) That which a person sets before himself as an object to be reached or accomplished; the end or aim to which the view is directed in any plan, measure, or exertion; view; aim; design; intention; plan.
(n.) Proposal to another; discourse.
(n.) Instance; example.
(v. t.) To set forth; to bring forward.
(v. t.) To propose, as an aim, to one's self; to determine upon, as some end or object to be accomplished; to intend; to design; to resolve; -- often followed by an infinitive or dependent clause.
(v. i.) To have a purpose or intention; to discourse.
Example Sentences:
(1) If the method was taken into routine use in a diagnostic laboratory, the persistence of reverse passive haemagglutination reactions would enable grouping results to be checked for quality control purposes.
(2) The purpose of these studies was to better understand the molecular basis of chromosome aberration formation after mitomycin C treatment.
(3) The purpose of the present study was to report on remaining teeth and periodontal conditions in a population of 200 adolescent and adult Vietnamese refugees.
(4) It was the purpose of the present study to describe the normal pattern of the growth sites of the nasal septum according to age and sex by histological and microradiographical examination of human autopsy material.
(5) The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential for integrating surveillance techniques in reproductive epidemiology with geographic information system technology in order to identify populations at risk around hazardous waste sites.
(6) These patients had undergone selective and bilateral simultaneous IPS sampling for diagnostic purposes or for neurosurgical indications.
(7) The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effects of cromakalim (BRL 34915), a potent drug from a new class of drugs characterized as "K+ channel openers", on the electrical activity of human skeletal muscle.
(8) The committee reviewed the history, original intent, current purpose, and effectiveness of meetings held on the unit; when problems were identified, suggestions for change were formulated.
(9) Current status of prognosis in clinical, experimental and prophylactic medicine is delineated with formulation of the purposes and feasibility of therapeutic and preventive realization of the disease onset and run prediction.
(10) For this purpose a test consisting of 135 picture cards was devised.
(11) For this purpose the blood flow velocity in the internal carotid artery, basilar cerebral artery and the anterior cerebral artery was measured by pulsed Dopplersonography before and 5-10 min after i.v.
(12) The purpose of our study was to determine the effect of HVPC on edema formation in frogs.
(13) The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of pretreatment with indomethacin on the refractory period to hypertonic saline-induced bronchoconstriction.
(14) What constitutes a "mental disorder" for purposes of the insanity defense?
(15) It delimitates the restrictive conditions in which such methods could be used for clinical but not research purposes.
(16) Benzyloxycarbonylarginine p-nitrophenyl ester and other activated esters of N-a-sustituted arginine salts may be useful reagents for introduction of trypsin-labile protecting groups into peptide fragments for purpose of polypeptide semi-synthesis.
(17) The purposes of this study were to assess the career development needs of entering medical students as measured by the Medical Career Development Inventory and to examine gender differences in responses to the inventory.
(18) For this purpose, five queries may contribute to programming the most suitable surgery.
(19) The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the signaling behaviors of female Long-Evans rats varies over the estrous cycle.
(20) The purposes of this study were to locate games and simulations available for nursing education, to categorize these materials to make them more accessible for nurse educators, and to determine how nursing's use of instructional games might be enhanced.