affection

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
Though my parents had been married so long, they had really seen very little of each other, and their affection was as warm and as fresh as if they were two newly-wedded lovers.

View all »
Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A tender feeling toward another; fondness. See Synonyms at love.
  2. noun Feeling or emotion. Often used in the plural: an unbalanced state of affections.
  3. noun A disposition to feel, do, or say; a propensity.
1 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • And the object of their affection was the Beacon-Light , as embodied by Lionel Mabry, dear old dad. —  Lippman, Laura - [Tess Monaghan 02] - Charm City
  • I love you more ardently than ever, and repeated assurances of your affection are absolutely necessary to my repose, and to that species of felicity which I can enjoy whilst separated from all I love most fondly—if, however, the word felicity can be applied to my melancholy, exiled state. —  Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette
  • You must not suppose my affection was a bit the less because I was half angry. —  The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley V.1
  • But after the death of Minos, my affection was always clouded by the memory of that morning. —  F ;SF - vol 105 issue 04-05 - October-November 2003
  • You might think the object of this affection is the spiraling economy, which has led them to declare war on moderately successful investors and small business owners while they refuse to acknowledge a war on terror. —  Latest Articles
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged affection

love · interest · trust · lack · tension · unity · adore · butterflies · force · unhappiness · worship

More »

Stats

This word has been looked up 390 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sympathy ·  friendship ·  devotion ·  passion ·  joy ·  pride ·  satisfaction ·  attachment ·  virtue ·  hope ·  anger

Used in the same contextWord Family

affection:   affections
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiō, affectiōn-, from affectus, past participle of afficere, to affect, influence; see affect1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English affectiun, affection, from Old French affection, from Latin affectio(n-), a state of mind or feeling, especially a favorable state, love, affection, from afficere, adficere, act upon, influence: see affect. Affection is formally a deriv. of affect, but in usage it rests also in part on affect.
  2. = French affectionner; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/əˈfɛkʃən/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

seethes · afraid · warre · suburbanization · ponytail

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich