Dictionary

ambivalence en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /æmˈbɪvələns/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from German Ambivalenz (“simultaneous conflicting feelings”), from Latin ambi- (“both”) and valentia (“strength”), from the verb valere (“to be strong”) (see valiant); spelled on the model of French-origin words ending in -ence. The German term was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910; by 1929, it had taken on a broader literary and general sense. Equivalent to ambi- + valence.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings (such as love and hate) towards a person, object or idea.
   • "I dearly loved my master, son," she said. "You should have hated him," I said. "He gave me several sons," she said, "and because I loved my sons I learned to love their father though I hated him too." "I too have become acquainted with ambivalence, I said. 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Prologue:
   • 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:
2. (countable, uncountable) A state of uncertainty or indecisiveness.

Forms

Deriveds

unambivalence

Relateds

ambivalent

Translations (34)

ru неоднозна́чность (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · uk суперечливість (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · hy երկդիմություն (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · nl ambivalentie (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · de Ambivalenz (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · fa ضد و نقیض (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · hy երկակիություն (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · es indecisión (state of uncertainty) · ru нереши́тельность (state of uncertainty) · is tvíveðrungur (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · es ambivalencia (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · fi ambivalenssi (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · uk протирічивість (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · ru амбивале́нтность (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · sh podeljenost (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · is tvíbendni (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · uk конфліктність (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · uk контрадикційність (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · pt ambivalência (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · sh ambivalentnost (state of uncertainty) · ca ambivalència (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · de Ambivalenz (state of uncertainty) · sh ambivalencija (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · uk контроверсійність (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · pl ambiwalencja (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · sh ambivalentnost (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · pt ambivalência (state of uncertainty) · fi ambivalenssi (state of uncertainty) · ru неуве́ренность (state of uncertainty) · uk амбівалентність (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · sh ambivalencija (state of uncertainty) · el αμφιθυμία (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · sv ambivalens (coexistence of opposing attitudes) · pl niezdecydowanie (state of uncertainty)