Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget
475. not understand &c. 518; lose, lose the clue; miss; not know what
581 words | Chapter 97
to make of, be able to make nothing of, give it up; not be able to
account for, not be able to make either head or tail of; be at sea &c.
(uncertain) 475; wonder &c. 870; see through a glass darkly &c.
(ignorance) 491. not understand one another; play at cross purposes &c.
(misinterpret) 523. Adj. unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable,
undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable[obs3],
inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible[obs3], incomprehensible;
insolvable[obs3], insoluble; impenetrable. illegible, as Greek to one,
unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret)
533; indecipherable. obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a
mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible
&c. (invisible) 447[obs3]; misty &c. (opaque) 426; hidden &c 528;
latent &c 526. indefinite, garbled &c (indistinct) 447; perplexed &c.
(confused) 59; undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious;
mystic, mystical; acroamatic[obs3], acroamatical[obs3]; metempirical;
transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed. inconceivable,
inconceptible[obs3]; searchless[obs3]; above comprehension, beyond
comprehension, past comprehension; beyond one's depth; unconceived.
inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable. unpredictable,
unforeseeable. Phr. it's Greek to me.
#520. [Having a double sense] Equivocalness.—N. equivocalness &c
adj.; double meaning &c. 516; ambiguity, double entente, double
entendre[Fr], pun, paragram[obs3], calembour[obs3], quibble,
equivoque[Fr], anagram; conundrum &c (riddle) 533; play on words, word
play &c. (wit) 842; homonym, homonymy[Gram]; amphiboly[obs3],
amphibology[obs3]; ambilogy[obs3], ambiloquy|. Sphinx, Delphic oracle.
equivocation &c. (duplicity) 544; white lie, mental reservation &c.
(concealment) 528; paltering. V. be -equivocal &c. adj.; have two
meanings &c. 516; equivocate &c. (alter) 544. Adj. equivocal,
ambiguous, amphibolous[obs3], homonymous[obs3]; double-tongued &c.
(lying) 544; enigmatical, indeterminate. Phr. on the one hand, on the
other hand.
#521. Metaphor.—N. figure of speech; facon de parler [French], way
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of speaking, colloquialism.
phrase &c. 566; figure, trope, metaphor, enallage[obs3],
catachresis[obs3]; metonymy[Gram], synecdoche[Semant]; autonomasia|!,
irony, figurativeness &c. adj.; image, imagery; metalepsis[obs3], type,
anagoge[obs3], simile, personification, prosopopoeia[obs3], allegory,
apologue[obs3], parable, fable; allusion, adumbration; application.
exaggeration, hyperbole &c. 549.
association, association of ideas (analogy) 514a
V. employ -metaphor &c. n.; personify, allegorize, adumbrate,
shadow
forth, apply, allude to.
Adj. metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical[obs3], typical,
tralatitious[obs3], parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical[obs3];
ironical; colloquial; tropical.
Adv. so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself; as it were.
Phr. mutato nomine de te fabula narratur [Lat][Horace].
#522. Interpretation.—N. interpretation, definition; explanation,
explication; solution, answer; rationale; plain interpretation, simple
interpretation, strict interpretation; meaning &c. 516. translation;
rendering, rendition; redition[obs3]; literal translation, free
translation; key; secret; clew &c. (indication) 550; clavis[obs3],
crib, pony, trot [U.S.]. exegesis; expounding, exposition;
hermeneutics; comment, commentary; inference &c. (deduction) 480;
illustration, exemplification; gloss, annotation, scholium[obs3], note;
elucidation, dilucidation|; eclaircissement[Fr], mot d'enigme[Fr].
[methods of interpreting - list] symptomatology[Med], semiology,
semeiology[obs3], semiotics; metoposcopy[obs3], physiognomy;
paleography &c. (philology) 560; oneirology acception[obs3],
acceptation, acceptance; light, reading, lection, construction,
version. equivalent, equivalent meaning &c. 516; synonym; paraphrase,
metaphrase[obs3]; convertible terms, apposition; dictionary &c. 562;
polyglot. V. interpret, explain, define, construe, translate, render;
do into, turn into; transfuse the sense of. find out &c. 480a the
meaning &c. 516 of; read; spell out, make out; decipher, unravel,
disentangle; find the key of, enucleate, resolve, solve; read between
the lines. account for; find the cause, tell the cause &c. 153 of;
throw light upon, shed light upon, shed new light upon, shed fresh
light upon; clear up, clarify, elucidate. illustrate, exemplify;
unfold, expound, comment upon, annotate; popularize &c. (render
intelligible) 518. take in a particular sense, understand in a
particular sense, receive in a particular sense, accept in a particular
sense; understand by, put a construction on, be given to understand.
Adj. explanatory, expository; explicative, explicatory;
exegetical[obs3]; construable. polyglot; literal; paraphrastic,
metaphrastic[obs3]; consignificative[obs3], synonymous; equivalent &c.
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