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  1. ambivalence love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person, object, or idea.
  2. n. Uncertainty or indecisiveness as to which course to follow.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.
  2. n. A state of uncertainty or indecisiveness.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. mixed feelings or emotions; uncertainty or vacillation in making a choice.
  2. n. (Psychol.) the simultaneous existence within a person of both positive and negative feelings toward another person or action, or toward an object (as of attraction and revulsion), resulting in internal conflict.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. mixed feelings or emotions

Etymologies

  1. From Latin ambi- ("both") and valentia ("strength"), from the verb valere ("to be strong") (see valiant). Coined 1910 by Swiss psychologist Eugen Bleule for "simultaneous conflicting feelings", by 1929 had taken on a broader literary and general sense. (Wiktionary)
  2. German Ambivalenz : Latin ambi-, ambi- + Latin valentia, vigor (from valēns, valent-, present participle of valēre, to be strong; see wal- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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  • Louises There's the ghost of ambivalence like a spirit that can't cross over. It's the price of double agency. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan. Mar 21, 2012

  • Louises The beauty of chronic ambivalence is that even tiny shifts of detail have the power to tip the scales. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan. Mar 3, 2012

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‘ambivalence’ has been looked up 4283 times, loved by 12 people, added to 56 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 20.