(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.
Univocal
Definition:
(a.) Having one meaning only; -- contrasted with equivocal.
(a.) Having unison of sound, as the octave in music. See Unison, n., 2.
(n.) Having always the same drift or tenor; uniform; certain; regular.
(n.) Unequivocal; indubitable.
(n.) A generic term, or a term applicable in the same sense to all the species it embraces.
(n.) A word having but one meaning.
Example Sentences:
(1) Several reviewed works show that this appearance of chronic abcess is a common and univocal reaction to various pathogenic factors, such as bacteria and parasites.
(2) The response of the fungus to an increase in the number of larvae is not univocal : at 10 degrees C and 22 degrees C the nematode-trapping efficiency does not seem to depend upon the larval dnesity of the inoculum; at 15 degrees C, on the contrary, the nematodes are all the more trapped as their concentration is high.
(3) Les Revenentes (translated by Ian Monk as The Exeter Text) is a univocalism, a text which only uses one vowel, in this case "e".
(4) Results show that no general rules can be proposed to describe univocally the relation between the shape of isotherms and the nature of adsorbate-adsorbent system.
(5) The type of organization is not univocal and could perhaps depend on the number of patients to be cared for.
(6) The results show that although the lack of phase IV does not have a univocal signification (and this is a limit to the utilization of the closing volume alone as a detection test) the quantification of the closing volume brings, as the Ce, f relation does, an original element, but the evaluation of Ce, f is more difficult to realize in practice.
(7) A survey on perinatal handicaps must follow some standards: a) homogeneous population; b) univoc method of evaluation; c) 7 years follow-up; d) case control study.
(8) The analysis do not allow the univocal interpretation of the importance of organic brain changes in psychotic patients.
(9) A univocal attitude was suggested in what concerns their diagnosis and their treatment, both medical and surgical.
(10) It seems that, with our current knowledge, no univocal explanation is perfectly satisfactory.
(11) Results show an almost univocal interpretation of the images and also that the data inhomogeneity in the less reproducible diameters valuation is caused by real difficulty in the interpretation of the pictures.
(12) Ovarian ultrasonography is often difficult to explain, particularly because of the non-univocal macroscopic appearance of the ovaries.
(13) With regard to the second question XP seems to provide some support for various theories on carcinogenesis and, DNA repair defects may favour actinic carcinogenesis in a complex, non-univocous manner.
(14) This analysis is complex because two out of the three factors are not univocal in their definition (various composition and doses for pills, numerous histologic types of BBD).
(15) Studies with leukocytes gave more univocal results and the majority of these studies found an increase in intracellular Na+ in many genetic normotensives.
(16) Although somatostatin inhibits a variety of pituitary and non-pituitary hormones, not univocal data on its effects on ACTH release have been reported so far.
(17) Results demonstrate that the influence of compared histological methods on lectin binding is not univocal.
(18) A univocal disorder of dopaminergic activity in the nerve structures responsible for extra-pyramidal motility does not take into account the total phenomena seen in psychomotor neurological studies.
(19) the heat quantity generated by the tumour per untis of volume and time, computed from from intramammary temperature and thermal conductivity measurements made using of fluvographic needle probes), is typical of each cancer and re7ains remarkably constant during the growth in spite of themorphological and of the morphological and circulatory changes; b) the tumour doubling time tau2v (calculated from measurements of the tumour size effected at various stages of the evolution by assuming an exponential growth), is univocally related to 1 by a hyperbolic law so that the faster the tumour is growing themore heat generates; c) q is significanty higher and tau2v shorter in all cases where the histological examination has revealed signs of lymphatic dissemination (carcinomatous lymphangitis, lymph node metastases,...).
(20) After describing the phenomenon of sudden death both from a historical and literary viewpoint, the paper tackles the problem of its definition which is not yet univocal in the present literature, and identifies it mainly in its chronology.