From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishambiguousam‧big‧u‧ous /æmˈbɪɡjuəs/ ●●○ AWL adjective MEANINGsomething that is ambiguous is unclear, confusing, or not certain, especially because it can be understood in more than one way OPP unambiguous The language in the Minister’s statement is highly ambiguous. His role in the affair is ambiguous. —ambiguously adverb The legislation had been ambiguously worded.RegisterIn everyday English, people also use the phrase you can take something two ways instead of saying it is ambiguous: What she says is ambiguous. → You can take what she says two ways.
Examples from the Corpus
ambiguous• Like a true oracle, Hailey's pronouncements were both authoritative and ambiguous.• Where Tudor is economical, organic and disciplined, Stevenson is fussy, distracted and ambiguous.• McClane's position in the company is ambiguous.• The last part of her letter was deliberately ambiguous.• He liked to keep the story of his life ambiguous.• In the first place, most of its key concepts are essentially ambiguous.• The results of the experiments were ambiguous and they will have to be done again.• Unfortunately the instructions were ambiguous and we didn't know which part of the program to run.• Le Touquet's identity today is a little ambiguous but it still has a nice feel about it.• She left a very ambiguous message on the answerphone last night.• The Labour Party remained in an ambiguous position.• an ambiguous question• Mitterrand had ambiguous relations with money, the power of which he regularly lambasted.• The document's ambiguous wording makes it very difficult to follow.Origin ambiguous (1500-1600) Latin ambiguus, from ambigere “to wander around”, from ambi- (AMBI-) + agere “to drive” 