equivocation

equivocation
    n 1: a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly
         avoids an unpleasant truth [syn: {evasion}, {equivocation}]
    2: intentionally vague or ambiguous [syn: {equivocation},
       {prevarication}, {evasiveness}]
    3: falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language [syn:
       {equivocation}, {tergiversation}]
    

Equivocation \E*quiv`o*ca"tion\, n.
   The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification,
   with a purpose to mislead.
   [1913 Webster]

         There being no room for equivocations, there is no need
         of distinctions.                         --Locke.

   Syn: Prevarication; ambiguity; shuffling; evasion; guibbling.
        See {Equivocal}, a., and {Prevaricate}, v. i.
        [1913 Webster]
    

131 Moby Thesaurus words for "equivocation":
      ambiguity, ambivalence, amphibology, antinomy, apparent soundness,
      avoidance, avoiding reaction, bickering, boggling, captiousness,
      casuistry, caviling, chicane, chicanery, circularity,
      circumvention, coloring, confabulation, counterword,
      defense mechanism, disingenuousness, distortion, dodge, dodging,
      double, double entendre, duck, elusion, elusiveness, equivocal,
      equivocality, equivocalness, equivoque, escape, evasion,
      evasive action, evasive reasoning, evasiveness, exaggeration,
      fallaciousness, fallacy, false coloring, false swearing,
      falsification, falsifying, fencing, fluctuation, forbearance,
      forestalling, forestallment, getting around, hairsplitting,
      hedging, insincerity, irony, jesuitism, jesuitry, jink,
      logic-chopping, lying, misapplication, miscoloring,
      misconstruction, misrepresentation, misstatement, mystification,
      neutrality, nit-picking, nonintervention, noninvolvement,
      obfuscation, obscurantism, oscillation, oversubtlety, oxymoron,
      paltering, paradox, parrying, pendulation, perjury, perversion,
      pettifoggery, philosophism, plausibility, plausibleness,
      polysemant, portmanteau word, prevarication, prevention, pun,
      pussyfooting, quibbling, rationalization, refraining,
      self-contradiction, shifting, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying,
      shuffle, shuffling, shunning, shunting off, shy, sidestep,
      sidestepping, sidetracking, slip, sophism, sophistical reasoning,
      sophistication, sophistry, special pleading, speciosity,
      specious reasoning, speciousness, squinting construction,
      straining, subterfuge, subtlety, suppressio veri, tergiversation,
      the runaround, trichoschistism, vacillation, vicious circle,
      vicious reasoning, wavering, weasel word, weasel words, wobbling,
      zigzag