More synonyms can be found below the puzzle answers. A word is vague when it is not obvious to a respondent what referents (e.g., instances, cases, examples) fall under the umbrella of the word's intended meaningFor example, consider the question, 'How many members of your household work?' vague adj (inattentive) impreciso/a adj : The student gave the teacher a vague ly vg-l. vagueness uncountable noun the vagueness of the language in the text. Mr. Pontellier had a vague suspicion of it which he thought it needless to mention at that late day. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, not clearly defined, grasped, or understood, not thinking or expressing ones thoughts clearly or precisely, It follows from what has been said that a, He walked. They state a general idea but leave the precise meaning to the receiver's interpretationThe following examples show vague or abstract words and ways to make them specific and precise: Notice in the preceding examples how adding a few words makes the meaning precise. Whereas the supervaluationist characterises truth as 'supertruth', the subvaluationist characterises truth as 'subtruth', or "true on at least some precisifications".[5]. saw a vague outline of a building through the fog. not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished. Property of predicates in linguistics and philosophy, "Vague" redirects here. not definitely established, determined, confirmed, or known; uncertain: a vague rumor; The date of his birth is vague. WebVAGUE STREETWEAR VAGUE Streetwear 777 HOODIE [ASPHALT] $65 777 HOODIE [BABY BLUE] $65 HEAVY METAL HOODIE [BLACK] $65 CHROME HEART HOODIE [BLACK] $65 HEAVY METAL LONG SLEEVE [STEEL] $40 HEAVY METAL TEE [AGED BLACK] $35 ESSENTIALS HOODIE [LAVENDER] $65 ESSENTIALS Webvague adj (understanding) (comprensin) vago/a adj : incompleto/a adj : Simon had to stand in for the maths teacher, despite only having a vague knowledge of the subject. not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand. vague adjective uk / ve / us / ve / C1 not clearly expressed, known, described, or decided I do have a vague memory of meeting her many years ago. WebC1. 4. not definitely established, determined, confirmed, or known: a vague rumor. Fine argues that borderline applications of vague predicates are neither true nor false, but rather are instances of "truth value gaps". Vagueness is separate from ambiguity, in which an expression has multiple denotations. indistinct. A standard example of ambiguity is bank 'financial institution' vs. bank 'land at river's edge,' where the meanings are intuitively quite separate; in aunt 'father's sister' vs. aunt 'mother's sister,' however, the meanings are intuitively united into one, 'parent's sister.' WebC1. A vague person is not able to think clearly, or gives an impression of not thinking clearly in order to hide their real thoughts: My aunt is incredibly vague - she can never remember where she puts things. Discussions about 'vague' in the English Only forum, One or more forum threads is an exact match of your searched term, El mapa grows awfully vague this far from town, he sense the vague stirrings of a nursery comfort, Then some vague impression of a Jamaican band, . are vague or not explained/described well, A vague nod to a bride from an Irish folktale. adjective. [6] Of a borderline case of "bald man" it would be both true and false to say that he is bald, and both true and false to say that he is not bald. More at waw, wave. The student gave the teacher a vague stare. For other uses, see, Machina, K.F. vaguer, vaguest. not clear in shape, or not clearly seen: Through the mist I could just make out a vague figure. WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS? "Definition and Examples of Vagueness in Language." ly vg-l. Fuzzy logic proposes a gradual transition between "perfect falsity", for example, the statement "Bill Clinton is bald", to "perfect truth", for, say, "Patrick Stewart is bald". 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. This predicate will not change the semantics of atomic statements (e.g. It may be essentially doubtful whether this is a red shape because it is essentially doubtful whether this is red, although beyond doubt that it is a shape. Nonetheless, the concept of species can be clearly applied in the vast majority of cases. Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. The, the Scots had some leasure to plaie their, movement on the surface of a liquid, ripple, Un peu comme un bateau qui trouve son quilibre entre les, A little like a boat that finds its equilibrium between waves and chaos, Piracy: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, Trsor de la langue franaise informatis, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=vague&oldid=70982514, French terms inherited from Middle French, French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European, Requests for review of Arabic translations, Requests for review of Dutch translations, Requests for review of French translations, Requests for review of German translations, Requests for review of Hungarian translations, Requests for review of Korean translations, Requests for review of Mandarin translations, Requests for review of Serbo-Croatian translations, Requests for review of Spanish translations, Requests for review of Swedish translations, Requests for review of Turkish translations, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Definition and Examples of Language Contact, Definition and Examples of Speakers in Language Studies, Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York. When could ambiguous be used to replace vague? What does fair to all the parties mean? 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. Synonyms for Vague are for example ambiguous, ambivalent and bewildered. Suppose one wants to come up with a definition of "right" in the moral sense. vagueness uncountable noun the vagueness of the language in the text. synonyms: dim, faint, shadowy, wispy. How many can you get right? ], from Old French vague (movement on the surface of a liquid, ripple), from Old Norse vgr (sea), from Proto-Germanic *wgaz (wave, storm), from Proto-Indo-European *we- (to drag, carry). When each letter can be seen but not heard. Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for vaguely, Nglish: Translation of vaguely for Spanish Speakers. WebIn the common law system, vagueness is a possible legal defence against by-laws and other regulations. Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. The legal principle is that delegated power cannot be used more broadly than the delegator intended. An old-fashioned rule we can no longer put up with. Thesaurus / vague FEEDBACK vague See definition of vague on Dictionary.com adj. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. A vague person is not able to think clearly, or gives an impression of not thinking clearly in order to hide their real thoughts: My aunt is incredibly vague - she can never remember where she puts things. Subvaluationism proposes that borderline applications of vague terms are both true and false. vago, vago/ga [masculine-feminine, singular], Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes, Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. A vague person is not able to think clearly, or gives an impression of not Webnot definitely established, determined, confirmed, or known; uncertain: a vague rumor; The date of his birth is vague. The words obscure and vague can be used in similar contexts, but obscure implies a hiding or veiling of meaning through some inadequacy of expression or withholding of full knowledge. (2021, February 16). But for the public speaker, generalizations are useless for either imparting or impressing his thought; a single concrete example has far more convincing and persuasive force. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. First recorded in 154050; from Middle French or directly from Latin, Dictionary.com Unabridged The most common downtoners are: We use vague language such as kind of, sort of or the suffix -ish to reduce the force of a word or phrase: Vague language is very common, especially in speaking. How is the word vague different from other adjectives like it? He's vaguely familiar with the area. vague adj (inattentive) impreciso/a adj : The student gave the teacher a vague stare. Webvague adjective uk / ve / us / ve / C1 not clearly expressed, known, described, or decided I do have a vague memory of meeting her many years ago. The patient had complained of vague pains and backache. Even such apparently unambiguous concepts such as gender can be subject to vagueness problems, not just from transsexuals' gender transitions but also from certain genetic conditions which can give an individual mixed male and female biological traits (see intersex). Hear a word and type it out. Nordquist, Richard. , , Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary, the webmaster's page for free fun content, Vaguely Plausible National Football League. One theoretical approach is that of fuzzy logic, developed by American mathematician Lotfi Zadeh. The concept of vagueness has philosophical importance. C1 not clear in shape, or not clearly seen Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/vagueness-language-1692483. According to this theory, a vague statement is true if it is true on at least one precisification and false if it is false under at least one precisification. Web1 as in unclear not expressed in precise terms gave as vague a reply as he could, hoping not to give away the surprise Synonyms & Similar Words Relevance unclear ambiguous fuzzy cryptic indefinite inexplicit confusing nebulous obscure enigmatic hazy muzzy indistinct murky enigmatical unintelligible undefined uncertain equivocal blurry indeterminate (of persons) not clear or definite in thought, understanding, or One wants a definition to cover actions that are clearly right and exclude actions that are clearly wrong, but what does one do with the borderline cases? Consider those animals in Alaska that are the result of breeding huskies and wolves: are they dogs? Many scientific concepts are of necessity vague, for instance species in biology cannot be precisely defined, owing to unclear cases such as ring species. A fourth approach, known as "the epistemicist view", has been defended by Timothy Williamson (1994),[7] R. A. Sorensen (1988) [8] and (2001),[9] and Nicholas Rescher (2009). (of persons) not clear or definite in thought, understanding, or expression: