Word.ws English Dictionary

disambiguate

/ˌdɪ.samˈbɪɡjuːeɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˌdɪs.amˈbɪɡ.juːeɪt/

disambiguate verb: to remove ambiguities from; to make less ambiguous; to clarify or specify which of multiple possibilities applies – e.g., possible meanings of an ambiguous statement – or to invite or require this.

Verb

disambiguate (third-person singular simple present disambiguates, present participle disambiguating, simple past and past participle disambiguated)

  1. To remove ambiguities from; to make less ambiguous; to clarify or specify which of multiple possibilities applies – e.g., possible meanings of an ambiguous statement – or to invite or require this.
  2. To distinguish one word or lexical unit (from a different one which has a similar form).
    • When necessary, the Greek spelling is disambiguated by an appended phonetic transcription.1967, Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, volume 43, page 619
    • The dictionary's traditional “readers” have largely survived this transition, too. They find earlier and better uses of terms which computers can't (in the jargon) disambiguate—distinguish from other similar uses.2016, John Simpson, The Word Detective, Little, Brown, published 2016, page 281

Forms of disambiguate

third-person singular presentdisambiguates
present participledisambiguating
past participledisambiguated
pastdisambiguated

Origin of disambiguate

From dis- + ambiguate.

Words formed from disambiguate

Questions about disambiguate

What does disambiguate mean?
Disambiguate means to remove ambiguities from; to make less ambiguous; to clarify or specify which of multiple possibilities applies – e.g., possible meanings of an ambiguous statement – or to invite or require this.
What part of speech is disambiguate?
Disambiguate is a verb.
How do you pronounce disambiguate?
Disambiguate is pronounced /ˌdɪ.samˈbɪɡjuːeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of disambiguate?
The past tense of disambiguate is disambiguated.

Words near disambiguate in the dictionary

  1. disallying
  2. DiSalvo
  3. DiSalvos
  4. disamara
  5. disamarium
  6. disambiguate
  7. disambiguated
  8. disambiguates
  9. disambiguating
  10. disambiguation
  11. disambiguations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: disambiguate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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