ambivalent

[am-biv-uh-luhnt]

adjective

1. having mixed feelings about someone or something; being unable to choose between two (usually opposing) courses of action.

   The whole family was ambivalent about the move to the suburbs.

   She is regarded as a morally ambivalent character in the play.

2. Psychology.,  of or relating to the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing that individual in opposite directions.

Other Word Forms

• ambivalently adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ambivalent¹

Back formation from ambivalence

Example Sentences

For many Latino members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an ambivalent sense of the Church’s stance on immigrants.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

There was an ambivalent, if not stone cold, attitude towards the beefy Californian.

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Los Angeles, home of the nation’s first freeway and drive-in church, has long been ambivalent if not downright antagonistic toward paid parking.

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Work I was involved in has shown that people who are dispositionally ambivalent — that is, who are more comfortable holding contradictory thoughts or feelings — are less prone to cognitive biases like the confirmation bias.

Read more on Salon

But many people are ambivalent, having seen the kind of consequences that always-present online life and toxic social media have brought alongside their benefits.

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Related Words

• contradictory 
• doubtful 
• equivocal 
• hesitant 
• mixed 
• uncertain 
• undecided 
• unsure