Definition:
The presence of two or more possible meanings (either intended or inadvertent) in any passage.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "wandering about"Examples and Observations:
- "What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
(William Blake, "The Tyger") - "I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband."
- "More hay, Trigger?"
"No thanks, Roy, I'm stuffed!" - "I can't recommend this book too highly."
- "People ask me if I left the lyrics [of 'American Pie'] open to ambiguity. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time."
(Don McLean) - "Prostitutes Appeal to Pope"
(newspaper headline) - "Quintilian uses amphibolia (III.vi.46) to mean 'ambiguity,' and tells us (Vii.ix.1) that its species are innumerable; among them, presumably, are Pun and Irony."
(Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, University of California Press, 1991) - "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins."
(advertising slogan for Calvin Klein jeans) - "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."
(President George W. Bush, May 30, 2003)
Pronunciation: am-big-YOU-it-tee
Also Known As: amphibologia, amphibolia
