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
Etymologies
- From ambivalence, from German Ambivalenz, from Latin ambi- ("in two ways") + valeō ("be strong") (Wiktionary)
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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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Dominant/Submissive
abusive, adamant, autocratic, bossy, bullheaded, bumptious, certain, cock-a-hoop, cocksure, cocky, commanding, compelling and 189 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Article's related words
reading 2 articles a week and here will reference unknown words, weekly!
fervor, belie, inure, hiatus, ambivalent, despise, revere, chasten, expurgate, edify, neologism, inchoate and 13 more...
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Previous GRE
churlish, martinet, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, hack, dissimilitude, whit, histrionics, prevarication, pithy, aphorism and 16 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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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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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 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...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 205 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ambivalent.
Jimmydiamond an emotional seesaw of indifferance Oct 6, 2012
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