-uous +

1. Open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal: "She gave us an ambiguous answer instead of a clear explanation."
2. Of a doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, to distinguish, or to classify: "We found a rock with ambiguous features."
3. Lacking clearness or definiteness; obscure; indistinct: "With all of the wars going on, we seem to have an ambiguous future."
4. Etymology: from Latin ambiguus, "having double meaning, shifting, changeable, doubtful"; derived from ambigere, "to dispute about"; literally, "to wander"; from ambi-, "about" + agere, "to drive, to lead, to act".

Ambivalent refers to people and their attitudes while ambiguous refers to something said or written.

Word History

Latin amb-, "about, around," combined with agere, "to drive", formed ambigere, literally, "to drive around, to waver". Out of this word grew the Latin ambiguus, "hesitating, uncertain". English borrowed it as ambiguous, with the meaning "equivocal, capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses, vague."

1. Constant in application or attention; unremitting diligent: "She was an assiduous worker who strove for perfection."
2. Unceasing; persistent: "He was always doing assiduous research for his project."
3. Constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive: "Bob was an assiduous student."
4. Etymology: From Latin assiduus, "busy, incessant, continual, constant" from assidere, "to sit down to"; therefore, "constantly occupied" at one's work.

Bilingual.

1. Easily or clearly visible.
2. Attracting attention through being unusual or remarkable.

1. Manifesting or feeling contempt; scornful; haughty; insolent; disdainful.
2. Feeling, expressing, or demonstrating a strong dislike or utter lack of respect for somebody or something.

1. A function or curve; extending without break or irregularity.
2. Continuing without changing, stopping, or being interrupted in space or time: There were several days of continuous rain and wind."
3. Having no gaps, holes, or breaks.

A constructive, or contractor, term for two, or more, fixtures that use a single continuous line as the waste line; the area below the point where the fixture drains into the pipe is the waste line.

1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating.
2. Giving a false appearance of frankness.
3. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf (French: a pretense of simplicity or innocence).

1. Having turns or windings: "The flexuous bed of the stream."
2. Curving, winding, or turning.

1. Fruitful; fertile; productive; profitable.
2. Productive of much fruit, or full of fruit.

Flowing with fire.

1. Relating to or involving a sexual relationship between two people who are considered, for moral or genetic reasons, too closely related to have such a relationship.
2. Having had a sexual relationship with someone who is considered to be too close as a relative.
3. Unhealthily intimate or interconnected; especially, so as to exclude the involvement or influence of others; an incestuous friendship.
4. Being so close or intimate as to prevent proper functioning: "There was an incestuous relationship between organized crime and government."

1. Having no adverse effect; harmless.
2. Not intended to cause offense or to provoke a strong reaction and unlikely to do so.
3. Not likely to irritate or to offend; inoffensive; such as, an innocuous remark.
3. Uninteresting, not stimulating or significant; pallid; insipid: "We just saw an innocuous movie."

1. Harmful; likely to cause injury or damage.
2. Likely to cause damage or injury; harmful; noxious.

Flowing or running with blood.