ambivalent
Americanadjective
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having mixed feelings about someone or something; being unable to choose between two (usually opposing) courses of action.
The whole family was ambivalent about the move to the suburbs.
She is regarded as a morally ambivalent character in the play.
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Psychology. of or relating to the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing that individual in opposite directions.
Other Word Forms
- ambivalently adverb
Etymology
Origin of ambivalent
Back formation from ambivalence
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For many Latino members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an ambivalent sense of the Church’s stance on immigrants.
From Los Angeles Times
There was an ambivalent, if not stone cold, attitude towards the beefy Californian.
From BBC
Los Angeles, home of the nation’s first freeway and drive-in church, has long been ambivalent if not downright antagonistic toward paid parking.
From Los Angeles Times
Work I was involved in has shown that people who are dispositionally ambivalent — that is, who are more comfortable holding contradictory thoughts or feelings — are less prone to cognitive biases like the confirmation bias.
From Salon
But many people are ambivalent, having seen the kind of consequences that always-present online life and toxic social media have brought alongside their benefits.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.