Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Semantics and Pragmatics
Ambiguity
Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples
/ˌæmbɪˈɡjuːəti/nounCommon term
In linguistics & grammar, ambiguity means: The quality of having more than one possible meaning, caused either by a word with several senses or by a structure that can be analysed in more than one way.
In Turkish: anlam belirsizliği, çift anlamlılık
How it is used
Linguists separate lexical ambiguity (bank: river side or money) from structural ambiguity (I saw the man with the telescope). Writers and editors try to remove ambiguity; jokes and headlines often use it on purpose.
Example sentences
'Visiting relatives can be boring' is a famous example of structural ambiguity.
Rewrite the instruction to remove the ambiguity.
Common collocations
lexical ambiguity
structural ambiguity
resolve the ambiguity
remove ambiguity
Related terms
polysemyThe situation in which one word has several related meanings, such as 'head' meaning a part of the body, the leader of a group or the top of a page.
semanticsThe study of meaning in language: what words, phrases and sentences mean, and how their meanings relate to each other and to the world.
contextThe situation, surrounding text and shared knowledge in which something is said or written, which help listeners and readers understand the intended meaning.
tree diagramA drawing that shows the structure of a sentence or word as branches, with each phrase and its parts shown as nodes connected by lines.
