Ambivalent Meaning
/æmˈbɪv.ə.lənt/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjSimultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, motivations, or meanings.
adjAlternately being or having one opinion or feeling, and then the opposite.
Sentence Examples
Professional language producers can be expected to be ambivalent about clichés.
I'm ambivalent about the itinerary for our overseas trip which my brother has drawn up.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She was ____ about the job offer, unsure if she should accept it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was ____ about the move, seeing both the positives and negatives.
Word Origin & History
Back-formation from ambivalence, from German Ambivalenz, from Latin ambi- (“in two ways”) + valeō (“be strong”); equivalent to ambi- + -valent. Compare ambivert.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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 is ambivalence incarnate. 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 original on 30 Jan 2020:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She was ____ about the job offer, unsure if she should accept it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was ____ about the move, seeing both the positives and negatives.