Word of the Day

: September 9, 2024

ambivalent

adjective am-BIV-uh-lunt

What It Means

Someone described as ambivalent has or displays very different feelings (such as love and hate) about someone or something at the same time.

// Aya was ambivalent about starting her first year away at college—excited for the new opportunities that awaited but sad to leave her friends and family back home.

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ambivalent in Context

“In 1985 my wife ... suggested that we go to Toronto to see the touring production of 'Cats.' She loved theater and musicals, while I had an ambivalent attitude. I had been in high school plays and enjoyed reading them, but musicals—not so much.” — Charles Schmidtke, The Buffalo (New York) News, 11 Jan. 2024

Did You Know?

Ambivalent typically describes either a person who has contradictory feelings about a thing, or the contradictory feelings themselves. For example, someone who is ambivalent about attending an event both wants and doesn’t want to go; the person’s feelings about attending the event are ambivalent. Ambivalent, along with the noun ambivalence, entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology, both terms being borrowings from German. The prefix ambi- means “both,” and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately come from the Latin verb valēre, meaning “to be strong.” Be careful not to confuse ambivalent with another ambi word, ambiguous, which means “having more than one possible interpretation.”