What It Means
Having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something or someone : characterized by ambivalence
Ambivalent in Context
Local businesses that support awards shows are likewise ambivalent about the appropriateness of muting awards season revelry.
Did You Know?
Ambivalent typically describes either a person who has contradictory feelings about a thing, or the contradictory feelings themselves. For example, someone who is ambivalent about attending an event both wants and doesn’t want to go; the person’s feelings about attending the event are ambivalent. Ambivalent, along with the noun ambivalence, entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology, both terms being borrowings from German.
The prefix ambi- means “both,” and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately come from the Latin verb valēre, meaning “to be strong.” Be careful not to confuse ambivalent with another ambi word, ambiguous, which means “having more than one possible interpretation.”
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