amphibology, amphiboly
(noun) an ambiguous grammatical construction; e.g., ‘they are flying planes’ can mean either that someone is flying planes or that something is flying planes
Source: WordNet® 3.1
amphiboly (countable and uncountable, plural amphibolies)
(grammar) An ambiguous grammatical construction.
• Strictly speaking, in an amphiboly the individual words are unambiguous; the ambiguity results entirely from the linguistic manner in which they have been combined.
• ambophily
Source: Wiktionary
Am*phib"o*ly, n.; pl. Amphibolies. Etym: [L. amphibolia, Gr. amphibolie. See Amphibolous.]
Definition: Ambiguous discourse; amphibology. If it oracle contrary to our interest or humor, we will create an amphiboly, a double meaning where there is none. Whitlock.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
4 April 2025
(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”
Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a brewing method that originated in Italy. When making an espresso, a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure forces through finely-ground coffee beans. It has more caffeine per unit volume than most coffee beverages. Its smaller serving size will take three shots to equal a mug of standard brewed coffee.
