Meaning & use
tergiversation
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Meaning
noununcountable
The act of being evasive or changing your position or loyalty in order to avoid a clear commitment.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the minister was accused of tergiversation.
Patterns
- accuse someone of tergiversation
- tergiversation over something
Critics condemned the senator's tergiversation on the tax bill.
After weeks of tergiversation, the committee finally gave a clear answer.
His constant tergiversation made it impossible to trust his promises.
Word forms
| plural | tergiversations |
|---|
Common combinations
- accuse of tergiversation
- Opponents accused her of tergiversation.
- endless tergiversation
- The talks collapsed after endless tergiversation.
- political tergiversation
- Political tergiversation damaged his reputation.
- tergiversation over a decision
- There was months of tergiversation over the decision.
Synonyms and how they differ
- evasion
- Evasion is the common word for avoiding a question, while tergiversation also suggests switching sides.
- equivocation
- Equivocation means using vague language to avoid commitment and focuses on wording more than changing position.
- vacillation
- Vacillation is hesitating between choices, usually from doubt rather than deliberate evasion.
- flip-flopping
- Flip-flopping is informal and stresses repeated changes of opinion.
Opposites
Word family
- tergiversate verb
- to be evasive or change sides
- tergiversator noun
- a person who tergiversates
Commonly confused: tergiversation or conversation?
tergiversation vs conversation
A conversation is a talk between people and has nothing to do with evasion, despite the similar ending.
Practice
The mayor's ___ on the budget, changing her story every week, frustrated voters.
Choose one answer.
Changing your story to avoid commitment is tergiversation. Candor means honesty, the opposite of the situation described.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tergiversation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.