ambivalent

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 9, 2024 is: ambivalent \am-BIV-uh-lunt\ adjective Someone described as ambivalent has or displays very different feelings (such as love and hate) about someone or something at the same time. // Aya was ambivalent about starting her first year away at college—excited for the new opportunities that awaited but sad to leave her friends and family back home. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambivalent) Examples: “In 1985 my wife ... suggested that we go to Toronto to see the touring production of 'Cats.' She loved theater and musicals, while I had an ambivalent attitude. I had been in high school plays and enjoyed reading them, but musicals—not so much.” — Charles Schmidtke, The Buffalo (New York) News, 11 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Ambivalent typically describes either a person who has contradictory feelings about a thing, or the contradictory feelings themselves. For example, someone who is ambivalent about attending an event both wants and doesn’t want to go; the person’s feelings about attending the event are ambivalent. Ambivalent, along with the noun [ambivalence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambivalence), entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology, both terms being borrowings from German. The prefix ambi- means “both,” and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately come from the Latin verb valēre, meaning “to be strong.” [Be careful not to confuse](https://bit.ly/4dbTcIY) ambivalent with another ambi word, [ambiguous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambiguous), which means “having more than one possible interpretation.”