amphiboly

== English == === Etymology === From Old French amphibolie, from Latin amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, “ambiguity”). === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /amˈfɪbəli/ === Noun === amphiboly (countable and uncountable, plural amphibolies) (grammar) An ambiguous grammatical construction. 1781, Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason," from John Meiklejohn 1855 translation Without this reflection I should make a very unsafe use of these conceptions, and construct pretended synthetical propositions which critical reason cannot acknowledge and which are based solely upon a transcendental amphiboly, that is, upon a substitution of an object of pure understanding for a phenomenon. ==== Usage notes ==== Strictly speaking, in an amphiboly the individual words are unambiguous; the ambiguity results entirely from the linguistic manner in which they have been combined. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === See also === equivocation === References === === Anagrams === ambophily