'Equivocation' definitions:
Definition of 'equivocation'
(from WordNet)
noun
A statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth [syn: evasion, equivocation]
noun
Intentionally vague or ambiguous [syn: equivocation, prevarication, evasiveness]
noun
Falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language [syn: equivocation, tergiversation]
Definition of 'Equivocation'
From: GCIDE
- Equivocation \E*quiv`o*ca"tion\, n. The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, with a purpose to mislead. [1913 Webster]
- There being no room for equivocations, there is no need of distinctions. --Locke.
- Syn: Prevarication; ambiguity; shuffling; evasion; guibbling. See Equivocal, a., and Prevaricate, v. i. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'equivocation'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- ambiguity,
- ambivalence,
- amphibology,
- antinomy,
- apparent soundness,
- avoidance,
- avoiding reaction,
- bickering,
- boggling,
- captiousness,
- casuistry,
- caviling,
- chicane,
- chicanery,
- circularity,
- circumvention,
- coloring,
- confabulation,
- counterword,
- defense mechanism,
- disingenuousness,
- distortion,
- dodge,
- dodging,
- double,
- double entendre,
- duck,
- elusion,
- elusiveness,
- equivocal,
- equivocality,
- equivocalness,
- equivoque,
- escape,
- evasion,
- evasive action,
- evasive reasoning,
- evasiveness,
- exaggeration,
- fallaciousness,
- fallacy,
- false coloring,
- false swearing,
- falsification,
- falsifying,
- fencing,
- fluctuation,
- forbearance,
- forestalling,
- forestallment,
- getting around,
- hairsplitting,
- hedging,
- insincerity,
- irony,
- jesuitism,
- jesuitry,
- jink,
- logic-chopping,
- lying,
- misapplication,
- miscoloring,
- misconstruction,
- misrepresentation,
- misstatement,
- mystification,
- neutrality,
- nit-picking,
- nonintervention,
- noninvolvement,
- obfuscation,
- obscurantism,
- oscillation,
- oversubtlety,
- oxymoron,
- paltering,
- paradox,
- parrying,
- pendulation,
- perjury,
- perversion,
- pettifoggery,
- philosophism,
- plausibility,
- plausibleness,
- polysemant,
- portmanteau word,
- prevarication,
- prevention,
- pun,
- pussyfooting,
- quibbling,
- rationalization,
- refraining,
- self-contradiction,
- shifting,
- shilly-shally,
- shilly-shallying,
- shuffle,
- shuffling,
- shunning,
- shunting off,
- shy,
- sidestep,
- sidestepping,
- sidetracking,
- slip,
- sophism,
- sophistical reasoning,
- sophistication,
- sophistry,
- special pleading,
- speciosity,
- specious reasoning,
- speciousness,
- squinting construction,
- straining,
- subterfuge,
- subtlety,
- suppressio veri,
- tergiversation,
- the runaround,
- trichoschistism,
- vacillation,
- vicious circle,
- vicious reasoning,
- wavering,
- weasel word,
- weasel words,
- wobbling,
- zigzag