Doubtful vs. Ambiguous

Doubtfuladjective

Subject to, or causing doubt.

Ambiguousadjective

Open to multiple interpretations.

‘The politician was criticized for his ambiguous statements and lack of precision.’;

Doubtfuladjective

Experiencing or showing doubt, sceptical.

Ambiguousadjective

Vague and unclear.

‘He gave an ambiguous answer.’;

Doubtfuladjective

Undecided or of uncertain outcome.

Ambiguousadjective

Hesitant; uncertain; not taking sides.

Doubtfuladjective

(obsolete) Fearsome, dreadful.

Ambiguousadjective

Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to signification; capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses; equivocal; as, an ambiguous course; an ambiguous expression.

‘What have been thy answers? What but dark,Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding?’;

Doubtfuladjective

Improbable or unlikely.

Ambiguousadjective

open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature or significance; or (often) intended to mislead;

‘an equivocal statement’; ‘the polling had a complex and equivocal (or ambiguous) message for potential female candidates’; ‘the officer's equivocal behavior increased the victim's uneasiness’; ‘popularity is an equivocal crown’; ‘an equivocal response to an embarrassing question’;

Doubtfuladjective

Suspicious, or of dubious character.

Ambiguousadjective

having more than one possible meaning;

‘ambiguous words’; ‘frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents were unable to assemble the toy’;

Doubtfuladjective

Unclear or unreliable.

Ambiguousadjective

having no intrinsic or objective meaning; not organized in conventional patterns;

‘an ambiguous situation with no frame of reference’; ‘ambiguous inkblots’;

Doubtfulnoun

A doubtful person or thing.

Doubtfuladjective

Not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating in belief; also used, metaphorically, of the body when its action is affected by such a state of mind; as, we are doubtful of a fact, or of the propriety of a measure.

‘Methinks I should know you, and know this man;Yet I am doubtful.’; ‘With doubtful feet and wavering resolution.’;

Doubtfuladjective

Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named; as, a doubtful case, hue, claim, title, species, and the like.

‘Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good.’; ‘Is it a great cruelty to expel from our abode the enemy of our peace, or even the doubtful friend [i. e., one as to whose sincerity there may be doubts]?’;

Doubtfuladjective

Characterized by ambiguity; dubious; as, a doubtful expression; a doubtful phrase.

Doubtfuladjective

Of uncertain issue or event.

‘We . . . have sustained one day in doubtful fight.’; ‘The strife between the two principles had been long, fierce, and doubtful.’;

Doubtfuladjective

Fearful; apprehensive; suspicious.

‘I am doubtful that you have been conjunctAnd bosomed with her.’;

Doubtfuladjective

open to doubt or suspicion;

‘the candidate's doubtful past’; ‘he has a dubious record indeed’; ‘what one found uncertain the other found dubious or downright false’; ‘it was more than dubitable whether the friend was as influential as she thought’;

Doubtfuladjective

fraught with uncertainty or doubt;

‘they were doubtful that the cord would hold’; ‘it was doubtful whether she would be admitted’; ‘dubious about agreeing to go’;

Doubtfuladjective

unsettled in mind or opinion;

‘drew a few tentative conclusions’;