Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Exhibiting or feeling ambivalence.
Wiktionary
- adj. Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, or motivations.
- adj. Alternately having one opinion or feeling, and then the opposite.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. undecided as to whether or not to take a proposed course of action; having feelings both for and against the proposed action.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
Examples
“Bleuler has used the term ambivalent, thus comparing these individuals to a chemical element having two bonds and impelled to unite with two substances.”
“I have long been of two minds about the word ambivalent.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general.”
The Washington Post: Gauging the scope of the tea party movement in America
“That the public might be ambivalent is not surprising, given how confusing the actual events have proven to be.”
“OK so David Davies avoided humiliation but I remain ambivalent/mystified by the whole by-election.”
“Still, some guidebook contributors remain ambivalent about the role they play.”
“The Dalai Lama’s comments underscore his determination to pursue a conciliatory approach towards Beijing, despite what he described as the ambivalent and contradictory messages by China.”
“It looks forward to the bargains we strike but it also looks backward at what we had to sacrifice to get there. compromise is what Freud would have called an ambivalent word.”
“But then "compromise" is what Freud would have called an ambivalent word.”
“VANCOUVER (Reuters) - For a city widely described as ambivalent before the Winter Games started, Vancouver was doing a pretty good imitation of a city which had fallen completely and utterly in love with the Olympics in the first week and planned to celebrate the fact in style.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ambivalent’.
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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emo words
feelings...blah, blah, blah, feelings...
forsaken, anguish, angst, sorrowful, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, heartbroken, genial, chipper, inadequate, helpless and 58 more...
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Hard to Spell
Not sure I'd be able to spell these words...
camaraderie, belligerent, strategem, hippopotomonstros..., epitome, accommodate, subtle, sacrilegious, ambivalent, wookiee, onomatopoeia, idiosyncrasy and 3 more...
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Snooty
Words that think way too much of themselves
notoriety, posh, victorian, mien, terrace, veritable, ambivalent, paradox, hypocrisy, damned, caprice, renaissance and 8 more...
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very good words must use in writing
ambivalent, allegory, spartan, callousness, clandestine, voluptuous, monologue, furtive, repudiate, fanatic, anodyne, reconnoitering and 4 more...
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Words to Know
Words that will hopefully help for the sat.
capricious, bombastic, decorous, loquacious, ossified, jingoism, mitigated, venerable, supercilious, pugnacious, jubilant, Perfidy and 17 more...
Louises I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I'ts all ambivalence, now, right? Grey areas. Morality reduced to approximations. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan Feb 25, 2012