English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French amphibologie, from late Latin amphibologia, earlier amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, ambiguity).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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amphibology (countable and uncountable, plural amphibologies)

  1. (archaic) Amphiboly.
    • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.133:
      In Athens men learn'd [] to resolve a sophisticall argument, and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words, captiously enterlaced together [].
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica[1], London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, published 1650, Book I, Chapter 4, p. 10:
      [] there are but two [fallacies] worthy our notation; and unto which the rest may be referred: that is the fallacie of Æquivocation and Amphibologie; which conclude from the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis of many put together.