ambiguity

thumb|250px|alt=Drawing of the back an anthropomorphic caterpillar, seated on a toadstool amid grass and flowers, blowing smoke from a hookah; a blonde girl in an old-fashioned frock is standing on tiptoe to peer at the caterpillar over the toadstool's edge|Sir John Tenniel's illustration of the Caterpillar for [[Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' is noted for its ambiguous central figure, whose head can be viewed as either a man's face with a pointed nose and chin smoking a pipe or as the end of an actual caterpillar, with the first two right "true" legs visible (1865).]]

Ambiguity is a state in which the meaning of a phrase, statement, situation, or resolution is not explicitly defined, making for several plausible interpretations. It arises when available information lacks sufficient context or a shared frame, so people cannot reliably determine what the problem is, what matters, what causes what, or what solution would count as correct. As a result, interpretation depends heavily on prior experience, assumptions, and imagination.