Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ambivalence in a sentence

20 example sentences · noun

Ambivalence means the coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea. Example: “In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate.”

Examples of ambivalence by meaning

nounThe coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.

  • In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate.2020 January 28, Mairov Zonszein, “Christian Zionist philo-Semitism is driving Trump’s Israel policy”, in The Washington Post, archived...

More sentences with ambivalence

  • He met his two most recent partners at bars, and expressed strong ambivalence and dislike of meeting partners online, but reported half a dozen additional hookups with partners met online.From the entry hookup
  • It's not just digital media tools that amplify the ambivalence of humor online.2018, Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner, The Ambivalent Internet […] , John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry Poe's Law
  • But her reactions to Lord Byron, riven beyond ambivalence, are a primer of the female-Byronist dilemma.2010 October 18, Susan J. Wolfson, Romantic Interactions: Social Being and the Turns of Literary Action, JHU Press, →ISBN. From the entry Byronist
  • Nothing illustrates Orwell's ambivalence towards cultural Marxism more powerfully than his writings on literature.2009, Philip Bounds, Orwell and Marxism: The Political and Cultural Thinking of George Orwell, →ISBN. From the entry cultural marxism
  • This is not to say there was no ambivalence about Russianness and Azeriness (or more specifically, Azerbaijaniness).1994, Thomas Goltz, Requiem for a would-be republic. From the entry Azerbaijaniness
  • But Brown's absence said something about the ambivalence of the Kennedy appeal after Chappaquiddick.1977, Jules Witcover, Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency, 1972-1976, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN. From the entry Chappaquiddick
  • Many mothers sever the strings with apparent ambivalence, and this feat is not commenced with ease.1971, Harry F. Harlow, James L. McGaugh, Richard F. Thompson, chapter 3, in Psychology, San Francisco: Albion, page 52. From the entry separational
  • And ambivalence is ambivalence mostly because it cannot be contemplated without ambivalent feeling: it is simultaneously attractive and repelling.”2020 January 28, Mairov Zonszein, “Christian Zionist philo-Semitism is driving Trump’s Israel policy”, in The Washington Post, archived…. From the entry ambivalent
  • This ambivalence is reflected in the countless warnings, rumors, and life tips that are posted on the board.2018, Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner, The Ambivalent Internet […] , John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 158. From the entry copypasta
  • The dual processes of acculturation and interculturation are constitutive of the 'creative ambivalence' characterising the behaviour of Caribbean peoples.2008, Narmala Halstead, Eric Hirsch, Judith Okely, Knowing how to Know: Fieldwork and the Ethnographic Present, page 187. From the entry interculturation
  • Oakley shows how a misaccount arises from “masculine ambivalence" about birth, which obstructs women from producing new accounts.1998, Robbie P. Kahn, Bearing Meaning: The Language of Birth. From the entry misaccount
  • The first group consisted of the Black teachers who expressed ambivalence and concern that students would be emotionally hurt by nonpromotions.1990, Kofi Lomotey, Going to School: The African-American Experience, page 62. From the entry nonpromotion
  • Why then, for a country guilty of occasional ambivalence toward the world game, does the World Cup provoke such urgent displays of public unity?2026 July 3, Jeremy Story Carter, “Why the World Cup has us waking up early to party with strangers”, in ABC News, Sydney, archived from…. From the entry world game
  • The first year of the Saturn return is filled with the ambivalence of whether one really wants to grow up or not.2000, Erin Sullivan, Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body, and Soul, page 73. From the entry Saturn return
  • But I also notice that many members of the virtual class have deep feelings of anxiety and ambivalence about projects they're involved in.1996 February, Jean-Hugues Roy, quoting Arthur Kroker, “Way New Leftists”, in Wired, →ISSN. From the entry virtual class
  • Ambivalence toward the larger society even permeated the Reichsbanner. the only SPD fraternal organization that, on paper at least, embraced bourgeois republican groups.1993, Donna Harsch, German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism. From the entry fraternal
  • Yet, in the meaning of presumptuous, "bold" could reveal the poet's ambivalence, since in their impudence the navvies took liberties with nature by mammocking it.1987, Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo-American Letters: DQR, page 104. From the entry mammock
  • A novel about writing a novel; a narrator who is and is not the author; general metafictional horsing around reflecting both the author’s and reader’s ambivalence about the novel.2015 January 14, Catherine O'Flynn, “10:04 by Ben Lerner review”, in The Guardian. From the entry horse around
  • I have to declare an interest and I do so with some ambivalence because if the road is dualled it is likely to take half of my front garden.1994, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates. From the entry dual

Meaning of ambivalence

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

Full definition of ambivalence

Questions about ambivalence in a sentence

How do you use ambivalence in a sentence?
Ambivalence is used as a noun. For example: “In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate.”
What is a short sentence with ambivalence?
“In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate.”
What does ambivalence mean?
Ambivalence means the coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ambivalence (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use ambivalence in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ambivalence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.