(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.
Unequivocal
Definition:
(a.) Not equivocal; not doubtful; not ambiguous; evident; sincere; plain; as, unequivocal evidence; unequivocal words.
Example Sentences:
(1) A throat swab from one patient grew group A, beta haemolytic streptococci, and in each case unequivocal evidence of seroreaction to streptococcal antigens was present.
(2) The possibility of unequivocally detecting syncytium-inducing strains after only a few days of coculture will make this detection routine and rapid.
(3) Although an unequivocal decision is not possible from existing knowledge, psychomotor or complex partial seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy would be the most tenable diagnosis.
(4) However, the test by itself should not be construed as an unequivocal measure of hysteria as defined psychologically by the MMPI.
(5) This provides unequivocal evidence that partitioning is the dominant form of retention for small nonpolar solutes.
(6) Derivatization of two glucuronides with 2-ferrocenylethylamine, followed by chromatographic separation and measurement of hydrodynamic voltammograms with an electrochemical detector was carried out for unequivocal identification.
(7) The NMR spectra of the two tRNA species in the region between 0 and 4 ppm below 4,4-dimethyl-4-silapentane-1-sulfonic acid (DSS) (methyl and methylene region) were the same except for the absence of the lowest field peak at 3.8 ppm in tRNAMet f3, thus unequivocally identifying this resonance at the methyl group of m7G47 of tRNAMet f1.
(8) The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, said the resolution "sent an unequivocal message to [North Korea] that the international community will not tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons."
(9) Unequivocal interstitial deposits were infrequent and IgM was present in blood vessels in one patient only.
(10) It is demonstrated that the wall thickness-to-lumen diameter ratio or any similar parameters cannot be used as an unequivocal indicator of vascular change, therefore neither muscular coat hypertrophy, nor narrowed lumen should be regarded as proven in cases of arterial hypertension.
(11) Furthermore, the value of the flux ratio for this substance under conditions of zero electrochemical potential across the bowel wall unequivocally demonstrates active transport.
(12) Whereas the diagnosis unequivocally could be established by semithin sections the diagnosis was doubtful using material fixed with Bouin's solution and overlooked when the material was fixed with 4% formaldehyde solution.
(13) Despite the small number of patients studied, these results suggest the importance of limiting the prescription of 25 OH D3 to children suffering from renal osteodystrophy only after having assessed unequivocally an osteomalacic component by histodynamical criteria.
(14) Such attachment was unequivocally demonstrated in stereo pairs.
(15) What is needed is decisive action, and a clear and unequivocal policy on maintaining and fully enforcing UN sanctions against the Eritrean regime.
(16) However, there was unequivocal chronic arsenic intoxication.
(17) Although the neuroleptic drugs appear to act via an inhibition of dopamine receptors, measurements of dopamine metabolites in vivo, or of the transmitter and its receptors in post-mortem brain tissue, do not provide unequivocal evidence of a hyperactivity of dopaminergic neurotransmission in the disease.
(18) Fifteen patients had unequivocally normal left ventricular function by all these parameters.
(19) If CT scan also fails to enable an unequivocal diagnosis, the next step must be laboratory investigations.
(20) When the results were compared with human heavy-chain sequences, all the dog and cat proteins could be unequivocally assigned to the V(H)III subgroup.