different between equivocal vs paradoxical

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

paradox +? -ical

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pæ???d?ks?k?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p????d??ks?k?l/
• Hyphenation: pa?ra?dox?ic?al

Adjective

paradoxical (comparative more paradoxical, superlative most paradoxical)

1. Having self-contradictory properties.
   • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, book II, ch 2

     It is the ambiguity of language only which can make this proposition appear either doubtful or paradoxical. When properly explained and understood, it is almost self-evident.

   • 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book 2, ch 4

     It sounds paradoxical, but I am inclined to think that the weakness and insanity of the curate warned me, braced me, and kept me a sane man.

   • 1933, H. P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, Out of the Aeons

     It was tightly fitted with a cap of the same substance, and bore engraved figurings of an evidently decorative and possibly symbolic nature - conventional designs which seemed to follow a peculiarly alien, paradoxical, and doubtfully describable system of geometry.

Synonyms

• (having self-contradictory properties): oxymoronic, self-contradictory

Antonyms

• (having self-contradictory properties): self-consistent, self-evident

Related terms

• paradox
• paradoxicality
• paradoxically

Translations