Wiktionary

disambiguate

English

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Etymology

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From dis- +‎ ambiguate.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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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

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Translations

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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disambiguate

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

Etymology 2

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Participle

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disambiguate f pl

  1. feminine plural of disambiguato
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