Literary notes about ambiguous (AI summary)
The term ambiguous is deployed by writers to signal a deliberate openness or uncertainty in meaning, inviting readers to explore multiple layers of interpretation. Philosophical treatises, for instance, contrast ambiguous descriptions with clearly defined ones to probe questions of existence and knowledge [1],[2],[3]. In literary narratives, the word conveys an atmospheric complexity—from character emotions and ironic contrasts [4],[5],[6] to intricate political or moral commentaries that resist simple elucidation [7],[8],[9]. Such usage underscores how language can mirror the tangled realities of human thought and experience, blending clarity and obscurity in ways that enrich thematic depth [10],[11],[12].
- Thus 'a man' is an ambiguous description, and 'the man with the iron mask' is a definite description.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - Pronouns stand for particulars, but are ambiguous: it is only by the context or the circumstances that we know what particulars they stand for.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - But the notion of being 'in' the mind is ambiguous.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed.
— from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - I don’t know what there was in this brevity of Mrs. Grose’s that struck me as ambiguous.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - Our host said no more, but now I fancied that a sly and ambiguous smile was straying on his lips.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - However, the Hebrew word may be said to be ambiguous, and to be susceptible of either translation, "sons of God," or "sons of gods."
— from The City of God, Volume II by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - But, again, the term Freedom is ambiguous.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - "Society" is an ambiguous term; it may mean much or nothing.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - i. Shakespeare can hardly have failed to remember the conjuring of the Spirit, and the ambiguous oracles, in 2 Henry VI.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley - This whole picture, however, would still be ambiguous : it might be a movement either of increase or decline in Life.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche - It admits that possibilities may be in excess of actualities, and that things not yet revealed to our knowledge may really in themselves be ambiguous.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
