different between equivocal vs deceptive

English

Alternative forms

• æquivocal (rare, obsolete)

Etymology

From Late Latin aequivocus +? -al, from aequus +? voc?.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??kw?v?k?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??kw?v?k(?)l/
• hyphenation UK: equivo?cal

Noun

equivocal (plural equivocals)

1. A word or expression capable of different meanings; an ambiguous term.

   Synonyms: double entendre, equivoque

Translations

Adjective

equivocal (comparative more equivocal, superlative most equivocal)

1. Having two or more equally applicable meanings; capable of double or multiple interpretation.

   Synonyms: ambiguous, indeterminate

   Antonyms: unequivocal, univocal

   • 1817, William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

     For the beauties of Shakespeare are not of so dim or equivocal a nature as to be visible only to learned eyes.

2. Capable of being ascribed to different motives, or of signifying opposite feelings, purposes, or characters; deserving to be suspected.
3. Uncertain, as an indication or sign.

   Synonyms: uncertain, doubtful, incongruous

   Antonym: certain

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     How equivocal a test.

Derived terms

• equivocality
• equivocalness

Related terms

• equivocation
• equivoque

Translations

Further reading

• equivocal in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• equivocal in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle French déceptif, from Latin d?cept?vus, from d?cipi? (“I deceive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?.?s?p.t?v/

Adjective

deceptive (comparative more deceptive, superlative most deceptive)

1. Likely or attempting to deceive.

   Synonym: misleading

   • 1653, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, London: William Hunt, Scene 24, p. 521,^[1]

     […] others declare that no Creature can be made or transmuted into a better or worse, or transformed into another species […] and Martinus Delrio the Jesuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beast to be an illusion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature;

   • 1789, Thomas Holcroft (translator), The History of My Own Times by Frederick the Great, London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 163,^[2]

     […] at the opening of the campaign, the French, after various deceptive attempts on different places, suddenly invested Tournay.

   • 1846, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, London: John W. Parker, 2nd ed., 1847, Preliminary Essay, Chapter 2, p. 10,^[3]

     language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes

   • 1978, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 2, p. 13,^[4]

     […] it is characteristic of TB that many of its symptoms are deceptive—liveliness that comes from enervation, rosy cheeks that look like a sign of health but come from fever—and an upsurge of vitality may be a sign of approaching death.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deceptive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations