O'Neill had a genuine ambivalence toward US involvement in the war.ambivalentam‧biv‧a‧lent /æmˈbɪvələnt/ adjective 
We are both somewhat ambivalent about having a child.ambivalent attitude/feelings etc—ambivalence noun [singular, uncountable]: O'Neill had a genuine ambivalence toward US involvement in the war.—ambivalently adverb
WORD ORIGINambivalent
Origin:
1900-2000 ambi- + -valent ‘having a particular value’ (from Latin valere; ➔ VALOR)EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- At the very least, men generally assume their ambivalent feelings are normal.
- Her distaste has since evolved into ambivalent fascination.
- However, he has been ambivalent on the military budget, overall.
- Some people can be ambivalent in this way for years.
- This disparity in social attitudes is certainly reflected in the ambivalent feelings held by retired people.
- To the extent that he focused on Indochina at all, he was ambivalent.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY O'Neill had a genuine ambivalence toward US involvement in the war.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
not sure whether you want or like something or notambivalent about O'Neill had a genuine ambivalence toward US involvement in the war. (=not sure if you approve of something)· The public have a rather ambivalent attitude towards science.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· But the public mood is more ambivalent.· But elements of a more ambivalent, productive, associative approach to signification also exist within feminist psychology.· Telegraph/Times readers were more ambivalent, however, and our small sample of Guardian readers preferred the press by a big majority.· As producers, their views will be more ambivalent, depending on whether they work in sunset or sunrise industries.· As a consumer I am more ambivalent.· Wasn't it possible that his sexuality was much more ambivalent than he had let on?· The effect is a much more ambivalent and less fixed positioning of subjectivity.· John Kennedy was even more ambivalent about the Shah than Eisenhower had been.
NOUN· The same thing may explain the cricket establishment's ambivalent attitude towards the one-day matches that have shoved themselves on to the scene.· The first concerns her obsession with purity and her ambivalent attitude towards it.· I've always had a rather ambivalent attitude towards something happening to my father, and it persists.· We find in Charles, however, an ambivalent attitude.· Enlil had an ambivalent attitude to mankind.· At the moment, the public has a rather ambivalent attitude toward science.· One of the consequences of this is an ambivalent attitude to black immigrants.· At the beginning of the popular health system many people had an ambivalent attitude to traditional herbal remedies.
We are both somewhat ambivalent about having a child.ambivalent attitude/feelings etc—ambivalence noun [singular, uncountable]: O'Neill had a genuine ambivalence toward US involvement in the war.—ambivalently adverb