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Ancillary vs Amphiboly - What's the difference?

ancillary | amphiboly |

As nouns the difference between ancillary and amphiboly

is that ancillary is something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter while amphiboly is (grammar) an ambiguous grammatical construction.

As an adjective ancillary

is subordinate; secondary; auxiliary; accessory.

ancillary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary; accessory.
  • * 1836 , :
    • how easily he took all things along with him,—the persons, the opinions, and the day, and nature became ancillary to a man.
  • * 1898 ,
    • [E]very organ of the body, whatever function it may perform, must also perform the other four functions in an ancillary manner.

    Noun

    (ancillaries)
  • Something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter.
  • (archaic) An auxiliary; a subordinate.

    • References

    * * *

    Anagrams

    *

    amphiboly

    English

    (wikipedia amphiboly)

    Noun

    (amphibolies)
  • (grammar) An ambiguous grammatical construction.
  • * 1931 , Adrian Coates, "Philosophy as Criticism and Point of View," Philosophy , vol. 6, no. 23, p. 339,
    • By logical errors I mean such simple things as Equivocation, Amphiboly , and Begging the Question.
  • * 1987 , Jeffrey Buechner, "Radically Misinterpreting Radical Interpretation," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , vol. 45, no. 4, p. 410,
    • The language might be fraught with word ambiguity or sentence amphiboly .

    Usage notes

    * Strictly speaking, in an amphiboly the individual words are unambiguous; the ambiguity results entirely from the linguistic manner in which they have been combined. Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.

    Derived terms

    * amphibology

    See also

    * equivocation

    References