Having mixed or opposite feelings about someone or something at the same time. It means you are pulled in two directions emotionally or mentally.
From German *Ambivalenz*, coined in early 20th-century psychology, combining Latin *ambi-* (“both”) and *valentia* (“strength, power”). It describes the state of two opposing feelings having equal force.
Ambivalence doesn’t mean “not caring”; it means caring in two opposite ways at once. You can love and resent, want and fear, at the same time, with equal strength. The word gives a name to that tug-of-war inside you.
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