This invention relates to the field of nucleic acid chemistry, more specifically to the field of compositions and processes that can bind to nucleic acids, including compositions and processes that by doing so have use in the capture, detection and sequencing of nucleic acids, and most specifically to nucleoside analogs that incorporate nucleobase analogs that are able to bind to different natural nucleobases with nearly equal affinity, and therefore display a degree of ambiguity, or universality, in their binding pattern. Such nucleobase analogs, when incorporated into oligonucleotides, allow the oligonucleotides to bind with nearly equal affinity and/or melting temperature, to a complementary strand, template the synthesis of oligonucleotide from primers that have a distribution of sequences, and support the sequencing of oligonucleotides. Thus, these have use in human diagnostics, especially when polymorphisms are present in a population.