as in to weasel
to avoid giving a definite answer or position
the candidate equivocated as long as he could on controversial issues
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
1
as in ambiguity
deliberate evasion in speech
your equivocation when asked where you were last night is not reassuring
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in ambiguousness
the quality or state of having a veiled or uncertain meaning
the equivocation of the last line of the poem, "That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of equivocate
ABC News, 5 Jan. 2025
Hoping to entice equivocating consumers, retailers already have spent weeks bombarding customers with ads and early offers.
—Chris Morris, Fortune, 29 Nov. 2024
Paul Tassi, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Your moral equivocation about a deliberate hit to the head is offensive.
—Daniel Nugent-Bowman, The Athletic, 19 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for equivocate
Verb
And one of the things there is that there's a perception, fair or otherwise, that Democrats have equivocated about political violence from anti-Israel protestors, more recently, the killing of United Health CEO, Brian Thompson.
—ABC News, 5 Jan. 2025
Hoping to entice equivocating consumers, retailers already have spent weeks bombarding customers with ads and early offers.
—Chris Morris, Fortune, 29 Nov. 2024
Noun
There is no equivocation about whether or not Jamie killed Katie.
—Paul Tassi, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Your moral equivocation about a deliberate hit to the head is offensive.
—Daniel Nugent-Bowman, The Athletic, 19 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for equivocate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for equivocate
Verb
-
One of Wishman’s most Sapphic films is this gritty black-and-white sexploitation shocker about assassins who weasel their way into an apartment shared by two lesbians in order to kill a foreign dignitary.—
Erik Piepenburg,
New York Times,
2 June 2025
-
Trying to weasel things by providing additional levels is abhorrent.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes,
20 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
But the resulting ambiguity can fuel tensions as well.—
Megan Garber,
The Atlantic,
29 June 2025
-
The divide between the sexes seems to be widening, with many individuals reluctant to find themselves in the gray area in between, where ambiguity could lead to criticism or social ostracism.—
Jerry Colonna,
Forbes.com,
27 June 2025
Verb
-
The tragedy shook the small Ohio town — and stunned viewers who remembered the Stockdale family's 2008 appearance on ABC's Wife Swap.—
Christina Coulter,
People.com,
21 June 2025
-
And beside them, Milford, Weymouth and St. John’s of Shrewsbury also shook off their sub-20 seeding to advance at least once in an all-time showing of parity.—
Tom Mulherin,
Boston Herald,
21 June 2025
Noun
-
This is not the time to engage in a shuffle dance contest or go around kicking people.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
19 June 2025
-
The peppy shuffle rhythm and the bright chords ground the verse in familiar territory, but Andersson’s martial piano flourishes on the minor chord in the pre-chorus briefly pull the song somewhere older and darker.—
Mitch Therieau,
New Yorker,
18 June 2025
Noun
-
Here, instead, she’s swayed by a dead Diana softly squeezing her hand and kindly hinting — the dead Diana is an ace at tactful circumlocution — that now is the time to show a mourning nation some emotion.—
Tom Gliatto,
Peoplemag,
16 Nov. 2023
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By condensing Balzac’s opus to a few paragraphs, Barthelme was having a laugh not just at his predecessor’s genteel circumlocution—his tendency to describe buildings and manufacturing procedures and family trees in lavish detail—but also at the conventions of novelistic mimesis itself.—
Giles Harvey,
The New York Review of Books,
23 Apr. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Equivocate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/equivocate. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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