equivocation

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The medieval Catholic Church elevated the idea of equivocation -- saying something true but meaning it one way rather than another, as in the Saint found who reported to would-be persecutors "That Saint is not far from here," -- to Clintonian heights.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The use of equivocal language.
  2. noun An equivocal statement or expression.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • His equivocation is a tacit endorsement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a retired Army intelligence officer, said Thursday.
  • Taking refuge in equivocation, our academic elite has put its very mandate at risk, classically defined by John Milton as: "Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies."
  • After considerable equivocation, the regime took control of much of Chinese industry.
  • The medieval Catholic Church elevated the idea of equivocation -- saying something true but meaning it one way rather than another, as in the Saint found who reported to would-be persecutors "That Saint is not far from here," -- to Clintonian heights. —  3quarksdaily
  • Moral equivocation has been all the rage in our institutions of higher learning since the —  The Jawa Report
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French équivocation = Spanish equivocation = Portuguese equivocação = Italian equivocazione, from Middle Latin æquivocatio(n-), from æquivocari, have the same sound: see equivocate, v.
 

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/əkwɪvəˈkeɪʃən/
by American Heritage

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