equivocation
Strategic verbal vagueness
Equivocation is the use of ambiguous language to mislead without outright lying.
A politician asked about raising taxes might equivocate by discussing fiscal responsibility in general terms.
The word implies deliberate vagueness—exploiting multiple meanings to avoid commitment: His answer was pure equivocation.
To equivocate is to speak this way.
Misleading speech avoiding directness
- dissemblingConcealing true motives
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
- deceitDeliberate misleading of others
- duplicityDeliberate misleading behavior
dishonesty · lying · falsification · guile · sophistry · disingenuousness · half-truth · misleading
Error in reasoning
- sophistryDeceptive reasoning
- casuistryApplying principles to particulars
- weasel wordsDeliberately vague qualifiers
- loaded languagePhrasing meant to manipulate
spin · doublespeak · misdirection · obfuscation · logical fallacy · hair-splitting · word games
Absence of precision
- imprecisionLack of exactness
- indefinitenessLack of clear boundaries
- obscurityState of being unknown
- nebulosityCloudlike indistinctness
indistinctness · fuzziness · cloudiness · murkiness · opacity · double meaning · polysemy
Noncommittal maneuvering
- sidesteppingMoving aside to avoid
- dodgingAvoiding by moving aside
- deflectionChange in trajectory
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
fudging · weaseling · quibbling · tergiversation · ducking · noncommittal · cageyness · avoidance
Inability to choose
- waveringShowing unsteady resolve
- hesitationDelay from uncertainty
- wafflingEvasive, indecisive speech
- flip-floppingRepeatedly reversing one's stance
ambivalence · irresolution · oscillation · dithering · shilly-shallying · back-and-forth · inconsistency · fence-sitting
prevarication
Misleading speech avoiding directness
- dissemblingConcealing true motives
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
- deceitDeliberate misleading of others
duplicity · dishonesty · lying · falsification · guile · sophistry · disingenuousness · half-truth · misleading · double-talk
fallacy
Error in reasoning
- sophistryDeceptive reasoning
- casuistryApplying principles to particulars
- weasel wordsDeliberately vague qualifiers
loaded language · spin · doublespeak · misdirection · obfuscation · logical fallacy · hair-splitting · word games
vagueness
Absence of precision
- imprecisionLack of exactness
- indefinitenessLack of clear boundaries
- obscurityState of being unknown
nebulosity · indistinctness · fuzziness · cloudiness · murkiness · opacity · double meaning · polysemy
hedging
Noncommittal maneuvering
- sidesteppingMoving aside to avoid
- dodgingAvoiding by moving aside
- deflectionChange in trajectory
circumlocution · fudging · weaseling · quibbling · tergiversation · ducking · noncommittal · cageyness · avoidance · dancing around
vacillation
Inability to choose
- waveringShowing unsteady resolve
- hesitationDelay from uncertainty
- wafflingEvasive, indecisive speech
flip-flopping · ambivalence · irresolution · oscillation · dithering · shilly-shallying · back-and-forth · inconsistency · fence-sitting · mixed signals
- evasionsno comment, dodge, deflection, hedging, non-answer
- indecisionindecision, indecisiveness, conflicted, hesitation, indecisive
- ambiguityambiguity, ambivalence, double meaning, vagueness, uncertainty
- debate tacticsexaggeration, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, logical fallacy, straw man
- evasive languagehedging, vagueness, circumlocution, doublespeak, weasel words
- indirectnesscircumlocution, euphemism, hedging, hint, hinting
equivocationclarity
State of being understandable
clearness · explicitness · lucidity · plainness · precision
equivocationcandor
Unguarded truthfulness
frankness · directness · forthrightness · straightforwardness · honesty
equivocationunequivocalness
State of being unmistakable
commitment · decisiveness · definitiveness · definiteness · resolution