amphiboly
noun
am·phib·o·ly
am-ˈfi-bə-lē
plural amphibolies
: amphibology
An amphiboly is simply an ambiguous grammatical construction in a sentence … that could be correctly read to mean more than one thing, often to comic effect.—Michael Reid Busk
"Save rags and waste paper" can be understood two ways. It is an amphiboly …—Philip Howard
Cite this Entry
“Amphiboly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amphiboly. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.
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