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.
Partly as a result of the moral quandaries, Mr. Solomon finishes his book far more ambivalent about colonizing Mars than he was at the outset.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 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
His debut show of summer menswear in June last year won widespread praise, but his women's collection in October elicited a more ambivalent reception.
From Barron's • Jan. 18, 2026
And yet Americans remain ambivalent about the growing risk of floods.
From Slate • Jul. 24, 2025
I rolled over to look at her, and her expression seemed ambivalent.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
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.
