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If you are ambivalent, you feel two ways about the same thing at the same time, and you cannot settle on one.
If you are ambivalent如果你是ambivalent的, you feel two ways about the same thing at the same time你會同時對同一件事有兩種感覺, and you cannot settle on one而且沒辦法只選定一種。
You may want a job and dread it. You may love a person and feel tired of them.
You may want a job and dread it你可能既想要一份工作又害怕它。You may love a person and feel tired of them你可能既愛一個人又對他感到厭倦。
This is not the same as not caring. You do care — your feelings just pull you in opposite directions.
This is not the same as not caring這和不在乎不一樣。You do care你確實是在乎的 — your feelings just pull you in opposite directions只是你的感受把你往相反的方向拉。
People use it about feelings, people, and hard choices. It sounds a little formal; in everyday talk someone will often say they have mixed feelings, or they are not sure. Though actually, mixed feelings is very close to what most speakers mean.
People use it about feelings, people, and hard choices人們用這個字來形容感受、對人，還有困難的抉擇。It sounds a little formal這個字聽起來有點正式; in everyday talk日常對話裡 someone will often say they have mixed feelings, or they are not sure人們常常會說自己mixed feelings（感受複雜），或是說自己不確定。Though actually不過事實上, mixed feelings is very close to what most speakers mean mixed feelings這個說法其實已經很接近大多數人想表達的意思了。
Do not mix it with ambiguous, which is about something that is unclear, not about a heart that cannot choose.
Do not mix it with ambiguous不要把它和ambiguous搞混, which is about something that is unclear ambiguous講的是某件事本身不清楚, not about a heart that cannot choose而不是一顆猶豫不決的心。
組成ambi- (Latin: in two ways) + -valent (from Latin valeō, be strong). English built the adjective backwards from the noun ambivalence, which came from German Ambivalenz.
同家族的字
- ambivalencethe noun this adjective was built from
- ambivalentlythe adverb: in an ambivalent way
- ambivertshares Latin ambi- (two ways); a person pulled both inward and outward
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
ambivalentadj/æmˈbɪv.ə.lənt/
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Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, motivations, or meanings.
- In modern burlesque [...] sexual and erotic stimuli are often present in concealed and ambivalent doubles entendres.
- 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.”
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Alternately being or having one opinion or feeling, and then the opposite.
- His feelings toward his parents are ambivalent.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。