ambivalent
/æmˈbɪv.ə.lənt/
ambivalent adjective: simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, motivations, or meanings.
Adjective
ambivalent (comparative more ambivalent, superlative most ambivalent)
- Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, motivations, or meanings.
- In modern burlesque [...] sexual and erotic stimuli are often present in concealed and ambivalent doubles entendres.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 77
- The great sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that philo-Semitism and anti-Semitism both fall under “allosemitism”: literally Othering the Jew. He defined it not as resentment of what is different, which is xenophobia, but rather of what defies order and clear categories. In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew...2020 January 28, Mairov Zonszein, “Christian Zionist philo-Semitism is driving Trump’s Israel policy”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 30 Jan 2020
- Synonyms:
- conflicted, uncertain, undecided, unresolved
- Alternately being or having one opinion or feeling, and then the opposite.
- His feelings toward his parents are ambivalent.
- Synonyms:
- vacillating, fluctuating, wavering
ambivalent meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
ambivalent in Tamil
- இருமனதான, தெளிவற்ற, குழப்பமான, விருப்பும் வெறுப்பும் கலந்தமுறை, எதிர்திசை இணை ஆற்றல்
ambivalent in Urdu
- دو جَذباتی
ambivalent in Bengali
- উভয়বল, দ্বিমুখী, দোদুল্যমান, পরস্পরবিরোধী দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি, অনুভূতি
ambivalent in Malayalam
- uncertain, equivocal, unsure
- പരസ്പര വിരുദ്ധവികാരങ്ങൾ വച്ചുപുലർത്തുന്ന, സമ്മിശ്ര വികാരമുള്ള, രണ്ടർത്ഥമുള്ള, ഉഭയാർത്ഥമുള്ള, സന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധാർത്ഥ, ദ്വിഷ്ഠ
More languagesFewer languages
- ambivalent in Kannada
- ಅಸ್ಥಿರ, ಚಂಚಲ, ಇಬ್ಬಗೆಯ
- ambivalent in Indonesian
- ambivalen, ragu, bimbang, ragu-ragu
- ambivalent in Thai
- สองจิตสองใจ sɔ̌ɔng-jìt-sɔ̌ɔng-jai
Examples of ambivalent in a sentence
- A non ambivalent worldview, thus absolute, is always anti-agnostic!
- A non ambivalent worldview, thus absolute, is always antiagnostic!
- While gastrosexual "foodies" express great enthusiasm for all things food, the dude's relationship to food remains ambivalent.
Synonyms of ambivalent
Forms of ambivalent
| comparative | more ambivalent |
|---|---|
| superlative | most ambivalent |
Origin of ambivalent
Back-formation from ambivalence, from German Ambivalenz, from Latin ambi- (“in two ways”) + valeō (“be strong”); equivalent to ambi- + -valent. Compare ambivert.
Words formed from ambivalent
Questions about ambivalent
- What does ambivalent mean?
- Ambivalent means simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, motivations, or meanings.
- What is ambivalent in Tamil?
- Ambivalent in Tamil is இருமனதான, தெளிவற்ற, குழப்பமான. See Ambivalent meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is ambivalent?
- Ambivalent is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce ambivalent?
- Ambivalent is pronounced /æmˈbɪv.ə.lənt/ (UK).
Words near ambivalent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ambivalent (page history and authors); ambivalent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ambivalent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ambivalent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ambivalent (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ambivalent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ambivalent.wav, en-us-ambivalent.ogg, en-au-ambivalent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ambivalent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ambivalent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.