(un)equivocal

equivocal

e·quiv·o·cal    /ɪˈkwɪvəkəl/ –adjective
1.allowing the possibility of several different meanings, as a word or phrase, esp. with intent to deceive or misguide; susceptible of double interpretation; deliberately ambiguous: an equivocal answer.
2.of doubtful nature or character; questionable; dubious; suspicious: aliens of equivocal loyalty.
3.of uncertain significance; not determined: an equivocal attitude.


"By the time I reached college, words were my “thing.” As one teacher equivocally observed, I had the talents of a “silver-tongued orator”—combining (as I fondly assured myself) the inherited confidence of the milieu with the critical edge of the outsider. Oxbridge tutorials reward the verbally felicitous student: the neo-Socratic style (“why did you write this?” “what did you mean by it?”) invites the solitary recipient to explain himself at length, while implicitly disadvantaging the shy, reflective undergraduate who would prefer to retreat to the back of a seminar. My self-serving faith in articulacy was reinforced: not merely evidence of intelligence but intelligence itself. " (from: "Words" by Tony Judt, New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jul/15/words/)

[unequivocal
—Synonyms
1. certain, direct, obvious, unmistakable. ]