verb transitiveWord forms: ˌdisamˈbiguˌated or ˌdisamˈbiguˌating
to remove the ambiguity from (an ambiguous utterance or form)
Derived forms
disambiguation (ˌdisamˌbiguˈation)
noun
disambiguate in American English
(ˌdɪsæmˈbɪɡjuːˌeit)
transitive verbWord forms: -ated, -ating
to remove the ambiguity from; make unambiguous
In order to disambiguate the sentence “She lectured on the famous passenger ship,”you'll have to write either “lectured on board” or “lectured about.”
Derived forms
disambiguation
noun
Word origin
[1960–65; dis-1 + ambigu(ous) + -ate1]This word is first recorded in the period 1960–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Pap test, buyback, parvovirus, power play, tag question-ate is a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, its English distribution parallelingthat of Latin. The form originated as a suffix added to a- stem verbs to form adjectives (separate). The resulting form could also be used independently as a noun (advocate) and came to be used as a stem on which a verb could be formed (separate; advocate; agitate). In English the use as a verbal suffix has been extended to stems of non-Latin origin(calibrate; acierate)
Examples of 'disambiguate' in a sentence
disambiguate
Therefore, an early step of vision must disambiguate the incessant stream of information.
Wolfgang Tschacher, Ruth Genner, Jana Bryjová, Elisabeth Schaller, Andrea C. Samson 2015, 'Investigating vision in schizophrenia through responses to humorous stimuli', Schizophrenia Research: Cognitionhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215001315000177. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Results help to disambiguate previous studies on the effects of dieting on food cravings.
Anna Richard, Anna Richard, Adrian Meule, Adrian Meule, Malte Friese, Jens Blechert,Jens Blechert 2017, 'Effects of Chocolate Deprivation on Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Chocolatein High and Low Trait Chocolate Cravers', Frontiers in Psychologyhttp://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01591/full. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Depressive syndrome may be difficult to clinically disambiguate from frailty in advanced old age.
Vaughan L, Corbin AL, Goveas JS 2015, 'Depression and frailty in later life: a systematic review', Clinical Interventions in Aginghttps://www.dovepress.com/depression-and-frailty-in-later-life-a-systematic-review-peer-reviewed-article-CIA. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Here we test whether humans use visual and haptic information, individually and jointly, to disambiguate size from distance.
Peter W Battaglia, Massimiliano Di Luca, Marc O Ernst, Paul R Schrater, Tonja Machulla,Daniel Kersten 2010, 'Within- and cross-modal distance information disambiguate visual size-change perception.',PLoS Computational Biologyhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2832682?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Thus, animals have to use the present contextual cues to disambiguate the significance of the stimulus and respond appropriately.
Melissa Judith Sharpe, Simon eKillcross 2015, 'The prelimbic cortex uses higher-order cues to modulate both the acquisition and expressionof conditioned fear.', Frontiers in Systems Neurosciencehttp://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnsys.2014.00235/full. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
In all these examples, humans intentionally modify their action kinematics to make their goals easier to disambiguate.
Giovanni Pezzulo, Francesco Donnarumma, Haris Dindo 2013, 'Human sensorimotor communication: a theory of signaling in online social interactions.',PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3835897?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Three commercially available fluorescence analysis tools are then applied to disambiguate remaining mitochondrial clusters that require further inspection.
Lee Farrand, Ji Young Kim, Akechai Im-Aram, Jeong-Yong Suh, Hyong Joo Lee, BenjaminK. Tsang 2013, 'An Improved Quantitative Approach for the Assessment of Mitochondrial Fragmentationin Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer Cells', PLoS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.0074008. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
We provide a coherent picture of what the main criticisms are, and draw together and disambiguate common themes.
Bertie eVidgen, Taha eYasseri 2016, 'P-values: misunderstood and misused', Frontiers in Physicshttp://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphy.2016.00006/full. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Sign languages are sometimes claimed to lack argument marking, yet they exhibit many devices to track and disambiguate referents.
Carl Börstell 2019, 'Differential object marking in sign languages', Glossahttps://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/780. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)