Both adjectives can be used to describe when a person is unsure or doubtful about something. Someone who looks uncertain or who is uncertain what to do, think, or choose simply may not know what to do or think, out of lack of confidence. Ambivalent suggests having two conflicting or opposing feelings simultaneously, and for this reason being undecided: I’m ambivalent about the movie. There is a tendency to use ambivalent in contrast to affirmative or positive, so it seems to suggest a degree of negativity towards something based on a lack of decisive sentiment: You seem ambivalent about going out with her.

No need for these two words to duke it out; each one has its place. Fight refers to, among other things, a physical struggle or contest between two or more people, with or without weapons: sent home from school for fighting. Fracas has a much more particular and vivid meaning. For fracas to be a strong substitute for fight, the conflict in question must be a loud and disorderly scuffle and involve anywhere from two people to a small group. A fracas could break out or erupt among football supporters in the stands, between a belligerent drunk and the police, or even on the floor of a government’s parliament.

To urge is to insistently and earnestly ask someone to take a particular action: urge someone to see a doctor. Urge suggests pressing or leading someone verbally, similar to the way an urge we have can move us to act. Exhort, from a Latin verb meaning “to encourage,” suggests a high or moral endeavor relying on passionate arguments to persuade. Exhorting may take the form of advising or warning in the effort to convince (“Ask not what your country can do for you…”), and it is often on a larger scale: a crowd, followers, troops, or readers who are exhorted by a leader. You might use exhort instead of urge when the context calls for this word’s particularity, but it is also used as an alternative to urge in everyday contexts: she exhorted her child to eat the oatmeal.