lexical ambiguity
1
8.4
- noun
- /ˈlɛksɪkəl æmˈbɪɡjuːɪti/
- Specialized
- The lexical ambiguity of the word 'bank' can cause confusion between a river bank and a financial bank.
Examples
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Teachers often discuss lexical ambiguity to help students understand how context determines meaning.
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Automatic translation systems struggle with lexical ambiguity in languages with many homonyms.
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The word 'bank' is a classic example of lexical ambiguity.
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Can you explain the lexical ambiguity in this sentence?
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Automatic translation systems struggle with lexical ambiguity in languages with many homonyms.
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Teachers often discuss lexical ambiguity to help students understand how context determines meaning.
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The lexical ambiguity of the word 'bank' can cause confusion between a river bank and a financial bank.
Synonyms
54
6.3
A lack of clear meaning that allows people to understand it in different ways
1
7.7
A state of having two different meanings or sides at the same time
1
8.3
One word that has two or more different meanings
A situation where something has more than one meaning and causes confusion
How Ambiguous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase's meaning is directly compositional: 'lexical' (relating to vocabulary) modifies 'ambiguity' (having multiple interpretations), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to ambiguity of words or vocabulary items. This is a common, cross-linguistically transparent formation (ADJ + NOUN) and should be understandable to a B1 learner despite being somewhat technical.
Etymology
Lexical ambiguity is like a picture: the word lexical means 'word' and ambiguity means 'not sure', so it shows one 'word' with two different meanings. For example, 'bank' can mean the side of a river or a place for money, so lexical ambiguity describes when one word causes 'confusion' about meaning.