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.
North Carolina resident Shelley Hughes was more ambivalent.
From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026
Yet, even at the height of fame, he chooses to remain on the margins of celebrity culture, visibly ambivalent about his own success.
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2026
Unlike Europe, where leaders deliberately forged a monetary union to achieve greater economic integration and enhanced security for the region, the U.S. has been ambivalent about seeking a common currency with its geographic neighbors.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
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 • Oct. 9, 2025
She also may have felt ambivalent about the suffrage issue because she was a Quaker; many Quakers refused to vote because they did not want to participate in a government that waged war.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
