disambiguate

English

Etymology

From dis- +‎ ambiguate.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪ.samˈbɪɡjuːeɪt/

Verb

disambiguate (third-person singular simple present disambiguates, present participle disambiguating, simple past and past participle disambiguated)

1. To remove ambiguities from; to make less ambiguous; to clarify or specify which of multiple possibilities applies – e.g., possible meanings of an ambiguous statement – or to invite or require this.
2. (linguistics) To distinguish one word or lexical unit (from a different one which has a similar form).
   • 1967, Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, volume 43, page 619:

     When necessary, the Greek spelling is disambiguated by an appended phonetic transcription.

   • 2016, John Simpson, The Word Detective, Little, Brown, published 2016, page 281:

     The dictionary's traditional “readers” have largely survived this transition, too. They find earlier and better uses of terms which computers can't (in the jargon) disambiguate—distinguish from other similar uses.

Derived terms

• disambiguation
• disambiguator

Translations

remove ambiguities

• Dutch: desambigueren (nl)
• Esperanto: apartigi, disigi (eo)
• Finnish: yksiselitteistää, yksikäsitteistää
• French: désambiguïser (fr), désambigüiser (fr)
• German: disambiguieren (de), eindeutig machen, vereindeutigen
• Greek: αποσαφηνίζω (el) (aposafinízo)
• Hungarian: egyértelműsít (hu)
• Italian: disambiguare (it)
• Polish: ujednoznaczniać
• Portuguese: desambiguar (pt), desambiguizar (Portugal), desambigüizar (Brazil)
• Spanish: desambiguar (es)
• Swedish: klargöra (sv)

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

disambiguate

1. inflection of disambiguare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

disambiguate f pl

1. feminine plural of disambiguato