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| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | having more than one meaning |
| Synonyms: | clear as dishwater, cryptic, doubtful, dubious, enigmatic, enigmatical, equivocal, inconclusive, indefinite, indeterminate, inexplicit, muddy, multivocal, obscure, opaque, polysemous, puzzling, questionable, tenebrous, uncertain, unclear, unintelligible, vague |
| Notes: | ambiguous is vague by accident or intent; equivocal is vague by intent |
| Antonyms: | clear, definite, explicit, lucid |
| Main Entry: | borderline |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | inexact |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, ambivalent, doubtful, dubitable, equivocal, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, marginal, open, problematic, uncertain, unclassifiable, unclear, undecided, unsettled |
| Antonyms: | certain, definite, exact, sure |
| Main Entry: | cryptic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | secret; obscure in meaning |
| Synonyms: | Delphian, Delphic, abstruse, ambiguous, apocryphal, arcane, cabalistic, dark, enigmatic, equivocal, esoteric, evasive, hidden, incomprehensible, inexplicable, murky, mysterious, mystic, mystical, mystifying, occult, opaque, oracular, perplexing, puzzling, recondite, secretive, strange, tenebrous, unclear, unfathomable, uninformative, vague, veiled |
| Notes: | cryptic coloration helps conceal an animal; phaneric coloration makes an animal stand out |
| Antonyms: | clear, obvious, plain, seen, straightforward |
| Main Entry: | deceptive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, astucious, beguiling, bum*, catchy, crafty, cunning, deceitful, deceiving, deluding, delusive, delusory, designing, disingenuous, fake, fallacious, false, fishy, foxy, fraudulent, illusory, imposturous, indirect, insidious, lying, misleading, mock, oblique, off*, phony, plausible, rascal, roguish, scheming, seeming, serpentine, shifty, slick, slippery, sly, sneaky, snide, specious, spurious, subtle, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhand, underhanded, unreliable, wily |
| Notes: | deceitful means intended to deceive or cheat while deceptive means causing one to believe what is not true or likely to mislead someone |
| Antonyms: | forthright, frank, honest, open, truthful, upright |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | devious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | crooked; indirect |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, bending, circuitous, confounding, confusing, curving, detouring, deviating, digressing, digressory, diverting, errant, erratic, excursive, flexuous, misleading, obscure, out-of-the-way, rambling, remote, removed, roundabout, serpentine, straying, tortuous, twisting, wandering |
| Antonyms: | direct, straight |
| Main Entry: | doubtful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | questionable, unclear |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, borderline, chancy, clouded, contingent, debatable, dicey, disreputable, doubtable, dubious, dubitable, equivocal, far-fetched, fat chance, fishy, hazardous, hazy, iffy, impugnable, inconclusive, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, insecure, long shot, obscure, on thin ice, open, pending, precarious, problematic, shady, sneaky*, speculative, suspect, suspicious, touch-and-go, touchy, uncertain, unconfirmed, undecided, uneasy, unsettled, unstable, unsure, up for grabs |
| Notes: | a person is capable of doubting, whereas a thing is dubitable; dubious, unlike doubtful, carries the connotation of suspicion |
| Antonyms: | certain, clear, confirmed, decided, definite, exact, resolved, settled, unquestionable |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | dubious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | vague, unclear |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, debatable, disinclined, doubtful, equivocal, indefinite, indeterminate, mistrustful, obscure, open, problematic, problematical, undecided, unsettled |
| Notes: | a person is capable of doubting, whereas a thing is dubitable; dubious, unlike doubtful, carries the connotation of suspicion |
| Antonyms: | certain, clear, definite, unambiguous, unobscure |
| Main Entry: | elusive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | evasive, mysterious |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, baffling, cagey, deceitful, deceptive, difficult to catch, elusory, equivocal, evanescent, fallacious, fleeting, fraudulent, fugacious, fugitive, greasy, illusory, imponderable, incomprehensible, indefinable, insubstantial, intangible, misleading, occult, phantom, puzzling, shifty, shy, slippery, stonewalling, subtle, transient, transitory, tricky, unspecific, volatile |
| Notes: | elusive is used when what is being avoided is physical capture or apprehension, whereas evasive is used when what is being avoided is direct or relevant response to a verbal challenge illusory means based on or having the nature of an illusion; elusive means difficult to describe or skillful at eluding capture |
| Antonyms: | attracting, confronting, encountering, enticing, facing, inviting |
| Main Entry: | enigmatic/enigmatical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | mysterious |
| Synonyms: | Delphian, Sibylline, ambiguous, cryptic, dark, doubtful, equivocal, incomprehensible, indecipherable, inexplicable, inscrutable, obscure, occult, oracular, perplexing, puzzling, recondite, secret, sphinxlike, stickling, stumping, teasing, uncertain, unfathomable, unintelligible |
| Antonyms: | clear, obvious, unmysterious |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
