characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker"; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely"
resembling an oracle in obscurity of thought; "the oracular sayings of Victorian poets"; "so enigmatic that priests might have to clarify it"; "an enigmatic smile"
not clear to the understanding; "I didn't grasp the meaning of that enigmatic comment until much later"; "prophetic texts so enigmatic that their meaning has been disputed for centuries"
having more than one possible meaning; "ambiguous words"; "frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents were unable to assemble the toy"
having no intrinsic or objective meaning; not organized in conventional patterns; "an ambiguous situation with no frame of reference"; "ambiguous inkblots"
uncertain as a sign or indication; "the evidence from bacteriologic analysis was equivocal"
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"
open to question; "aliens of equivocal loyalty"; "his conscience reproached him with the equivocal character of the union into which he had forced his son"-Anna Jameson
a symbol (like x or y) that is used in mathematical or logical expressions to represent a variable quantity
something that is likely to vary; something that is subject to variation; "the weather is one variable to be considered"
(used of a device) designed so that a property (as e.g. light) can be varied; "a variable capacitor"; "variable filters in front of the mercury xenon lights"
liable to or capable of change; "rainfall in the tropics is notoriously variable"; "variable winds"; "variable expenses"
having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding; "mysterious symbols"; "the mystical style of Blake"; "occult lore"; "the secret learning of the ancients"