Ambivalence
noun /æmˈbɪvələns/ — Feeling two opposite ways at exactly the same time.
Definition
The state of having mixed, contradictory feelings or attitudes about a person, thing, or situation simultaneously.
Beyond the definition
Not confusion. Not indecision. Ambivalence is the clear experience of two real, competing feelings at once. It's feeling relieved and devastated when a relationship ends. It's wanting to stay and needing to go. It's the honest word for most of the complicated things we feel.
Origin & history
From Latin ambi 'on both sides' + valentia 'strength.' Coined in psychology by Eugen Bleuler in 1910.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
She felt profound ambivalence about the promotion — everything she'd worked for, and nothing she wanted right now.
His ambivalence about the relationship was the relationship's problem.
Ambivalence is not weakness; it's the honest response to a genuinely hard choice.
Synonyms
mixed feelings, indecision, conflict, uncertainty, contradiction
Antonyms
certainty, resolution, decisiveness
Related words
- cognitive-dissonance
- uncertainty
- liminal
Ambivalence vs indecision
Indecision is the inability to choose — a failure or delay of will. Ambivalence is something more honest: the simultaneous experience of two real, competing feelings about the same thing. You can be indecisive about trivial choices; ambivalence is typically about things that matter. Indecision is a problem to solve; ambivalence is often the accurate emotional response to a genuinely hard situation.
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Fictional scene
Ready to go, reluctant to leave
Moving boxes wait at the door. With a new key in one hand and a photograph of the familiar home in the other, the person looks both forward and back.
The key suggests the promise of the move; the photograph suggests attachment to what will be left behind. Both feelings concern the same change and can exist together. That tension makes ambivalence different from simply having no opinion or not knowing which option to pick.
Image credit: Wordspun · AI-generated illustration