noun

• The state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

  ‘the law's ambivalence about the importance of a victim's identity’

  More example sentences

  • ‘government ambivalence towards the arts’
  • ‘In the past, I might have struggled to join in, concealing my ambivalence with uncertain assertions.’
  • ‘At every stage, ambivalence and indecision has meant that decisions were forced upon them by events on the ground.’
  • ‘Montgomerie is equally tentative, possibly because he senses Kidd's ambivalence.’
  • ‘My ambivalence over speaking at the funeral was compounded when dad asked if I would do a scripture reading.’
  • ‘There is deep British ambivalence about openly acknowledging this.’

  Synonyms

  equivocation, uncertainty, unsureness, doubt, indecision, inconclusiveness, irresolution, irresoluteness, hesitation, hesitancy, fluctuation, vacillation, shilly-shallying, tentativeness

  View synonyms