Meaning & use
prevarication
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Meanings
noununcountableformaldisapproving
Speaking in a vague or misleading way to avoid giving a straight answer or the full truth.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: he was accused of prevarication.
Patterns
- accused of prevarication
- prevarication about something
The minister's prevarication frustrated reporters.
After weeks of prevarication, the firm finally admitted the error.
Her prevarication about the missing money made everyone suspicious.
nouncountableformal
A particular vague or evasive statement.
Grammar: Countable when referring to individual statements: his prevarications.
Patterns
- a prevarication
- endless prevarications
Each prevarication made the lawyer more irritated.
The report listed several prevarications from the executives.
noununcountableformal
Delay in making a decision or taking action because of indecision or avoidance.
Grammar: Often linked with delay: prevarication and delay.
Patterns
- prevarication over something
The committee's prevarication over the budget cost the town months.
Further prevarication would only make the crisis worse.
Word forms
| plural | prevarications |
|---|
Common combinations
- endless prevarication
- Endless prevarication left the staff without answers.
- accused of prevarication
- The spokesman was accused of prevarication.
- stop the prevarication
- Stop the prevarication and tell us what happened.
- prevarication and delay
- The talks collapsed amid prevarication and delay.
- political prevarication
- Voters tired of political prevarication.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evasion
- Evasion is the general act of dodging, while prevarication usually refers to dodging through words.
- equivocation
- Equivocation uses wording with double meanings to avoid commitment, whereas prevarication can also be plain waffling.
- dithering
- Dithering is informal and about indecision, not necessarily hiding the truth.
- hedging
- Hedging means qualifying a statement to avoid risk, which is milder than the deliberate dodging implied by prevarication.
Opposites
Word family
- prevaricate verb
- to speak or act evasively
- prevaricator noun
- a person who avoids the truth
- prevaricating adjective
- evasive
Commonly confused: prevarication or procrastination? prevarication or provocation?
prevarication vs procrastination
Procrastination is putting off a task, while prevarication is dodging the truth or an answer.
prevarication vs provocation
Provocation means deliberately angering someone and is unrelated to evasive speech.
Practice
After days of ___, the spokesman finally gave a direct answer.
Choose one answer.
Prevarication means evasive talk, so a direct answer follows it. The other nouns do not describe dodging a question.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prevarication”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.