Ambiguation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of making something unclear or indistinct leads to various interpretations that create confusion in comprehension
2. Introducing vagueness or uncertainty into language results in a situation where meanings can be misinterpreted by different audiences
3. The process of causing uncertainty in meaning can yield multiple interpretations that complicate understanding for different groups

Etymology: "Ambiguation" is a late, technical-sounding coinage built from a Latin root that already meant "going around." The core of the word is "ambiguous," which came from Latin "ambiguus," literally "wandering about" or "going in two directions," from "ambigere," to wander, which was itself built from "ambi-" ("around, on both sides") and "agere" ("to drive or do"). A Latin speaker who called a sentence "ambiguus" was saying it led the listener around in circles, pulling them toward more than one meaning at once. The suffix "-ation" does the rest. It descends through Latin "-ātiō," passed into Old French as "-ation," and entered Middle English as "-aciou(n)" before settling into the modern "-ation." Attaching it to "ambiguous" yields a noun for the act or process of making something ambiguous, which is exactly what the word describes: the process of introducing uncertainty into meaning, so that a single message splits into several readings. The word is a modern formation on an old stem rather than an inherited term with its own medieval history.

Synonyms: clarification

Antonyms: confusion