ambivalence

noun

am·​biv·​a·​lence am-ˈbi-və-lən(t)s 

1

: simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (such as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person, or action

felt ambivalence toward his powerful father

ambivalence toward marriage

2

a

: continual fluctuation (as between one thing and its opposite)

b

: uncertainty as to which approach to follow

ambivalence about their goals

Examples of ambivalence in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In truth, this ambivalence existed for Jacob, too, who worried that the standardization of German in schools might downgrade dialects and the very folk speech that their lives had been devoted to capturing. —Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024

Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time That ambivalence started to fade in the mid-Nineties when the E Street Band first reunited. —Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2024

Intimate one-on-one interviews reveal in perfect clarity the imperious demands, emotional ambivalence, and sparkling humor that make Martha Stewart. —Ew Staff, EW.com, 2 Nov. 2024

Sam is the good one in this triangle, a low-key teenager who withstands their teasing, cooks their dinner on a camp stove, exudes all the ambivalence of an almost-adult who still loves her father but is poised to leave him behind. —Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 29 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from German Ambivalenz, from ambi- ambi- + -valenz, in Äquivalenz equivalence

Note: See note at ambivalent.

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

ambivalence

noun

am·​biv·​a·​lence am-ˈbiv-ə-lən(t)s 

: simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person, or action

ambivalence which is expressed in behavior by alternating obedience and rebellion

—G. S. Blum

ambivalent

-lənt 

adjective

ambivalently adverb