ambivalent

[ am-biv-uh-luhnt ]

adjective

1. 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.

2. 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 Words From

• am·biva·lent·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambivalent¹

Back formation from ambivalence

Example Sentences

GOP positions on housing this election cycle have largely ranged from oppositional, in the case of Project 2025 proposals to scale back federal affordable housing programs and weaken tenant protections, to ambivalent, in the case of the Trump campaign's promises to reduce costs by defeating inflation and stopping "the unsustainable invasion of illegal aliens which is driving up housing costs."

From Salon

I found a people thriving — and mostly ambivalent about this country’s partisan divide.

From Los Angeles Times

That serves to shore up the court’s ambivalent acknowledgment of the vice president’s dual role.

From Los Angeles Times

I vacillated frenetically between oversize and undersize clothes, ambivalent about whether I wanted to draw attention or repel it.

From Los Angeles Times

But scattered across this region’s tree-covered mountains, tobacco fields and orchards of apple and fig, are predominantly Sunni, Christian and Druze towns and villages — most of which are at best ambivalent toward Hezbollah.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• contradictory
• doubtful
• equivocal
• hesitant
• mixed
• uncertain
• undecided
• unsure