(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.
Suspect
Definition:
(a.) Suspicious; inspiring distrust.
(a.) Suspected; distrusted.
(a.) Suspicion.
(a.) One who, or that which, is suspected; an object of suspicion; -- formerly applied to persons and things; now, only to persons suspected of crime.
(v. t.) To imagine to exist; to have a slight or vague opinion of the existence of, without proof, and often upon weak evidence or no evidence; to mistrust; to surmise; -- commonly used regarding something unfavorable, hurtful, or wrong; as, to suspect the presence of disease.
(v. t.) To imagine to be guilty, upon slight evidence, or without proof; as, to suspect one of equivocation.
(v. t.) To hold to be uncertain; to doubt; to mistrust; to distruct; as, to suspect the truth of a story.
(v. t.) To look up to; to respect.
(v. i.) To imagine guilt; to have a suspicion or suspicions; to be suspicious.
Example Sentences:
(1) The diagnosis of anaplastic thyroid cancer, though suspected, was deferred for permanent sections in all cases.
(2) Plain radiographs should be the initial screening modality for a suspected foreign body.
(3) Development at two to 15 months of age in the 19 surviving infants was normal in nine, suspect in eight, and severely delayed in two patients.
(4) The triad of epigastric pain unrelieved by antacids, bilious vomiting, and weight loss, particularly after a gastric operation should make one suspect this syndrome.
(5) Spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions may be the only way of revealing very rare events but they present great difficulties of rational interpretation.
(6) From these results, it can be suspected that the motor fibres are more vulnerable during aging.
(7) Fibreoptic bronchoscopy should be undertaken in patients suspected of having a pulmonary complication of AIDS, even if the chest radiograph is normal.
(8) Fifteen patients suspected to have Morton's neuroma were examined by computed tomography, which revealed the neuroma in seven cases.
(9) Proven necrotizing enterocolitis was seen in eight infants and was suspected in eight others.
(10) Persistence of hypercalcaemia combined with an increase in tubular reabsorption of calcium in response to cellulose phosphate may be of diagnostic value in suspected primary hyperparathyroidism.
(11) An upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with multiple biopsies was performed in 19 children suspected of Crohn disease (CD) who had also undergone X-ray investigations and colonoscopy with multiple biopsies.
(12) Bartter's syndrome was suspected because of the features of the hypokalemia, hyperaldosteronism, hyperreninemia, increased concentration of plasma angiotensin I & II, the defect in distal fractional reabsorption of chloride and normotension.
(13) When foods such as dairy products contain large numbers of egg yolk-negative strains of S. aureus, the PPSA agar has the advantage over egg yolk containing media such as Baird-Parker agar that fewer suspect colonies have to be confirmed.
(14) The initial screening failed to detect sickle cell anemia in 4 infants, but the hemoglobinopathy in 3 of these infants was diagnosed correctly by routine retesting of those with suspected sickle cell trait.
(15) Seventy-one patients with 80 lower limbs clinically suspected of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) were investigated by both Doppler ultrasound and venography.
(16) There is general agreement that suicides are likely to be undercounted, both for structural reasons (the burden-of-proof issue, the requirement that the coroner or medical examiner suspect the possibility of suicide) and for sociocultural reasons.
(17) We correlated the MRI report and arthroscopic findings of 18 patients with suspected meniscal or ligament injury.
(18) Forty-six percent of the plain abdominal radiographs were suspected for cecal volvulus, but only 17 percent were diagnostic.
(19) An infectious etiology should be suspected in cases of necrotizing scleritis associated with a purulent discharge, and appropriate smears and cultures should be obtained.
(20) As someone who worked in Washington DC in media activities, I often suspect that different standards in reporting are applied to African governments.