affair
Americannoun
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anything done or to be done; anything requiring action or effort; business; concern.
an affair of great importance.
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affairs, matters of commercial or public interest or concern; the transactions of public or private business or finance.
affairs of state; Before taking such a long trip you should put all your affairs in order.
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an event or a performance; a particular action, operation, or proceeding.
When did this affair happen?
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thing; matter (applied to anything made or existing, usually with a descriptive or qualifying term).
Our new computer is an amazing affair.
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a private or personal concern; a special function, business, or duty.
That's none of your affair.
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an intense amorous relationship, usually of short duration.
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an event or happening that occasions or arouses notoriety, dispute, and often public scandal; incident.
the Congressional bribery affair.
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a party, social gathering, or other organized festive occasion.
The awards ceremony is the biggest affair on the school calendar.
noun
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a thing to be done or attended to; matter; business
this affair must be cleared up
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an event or happening
a strange affair
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(qualified by an adjective or descriptive phrase) something previously specified, esp a man-made object; thing
our house is a tumbledown affair
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a sexual relationship between two people who are not married to each other
Etymology
Origin of affair
1250–1300; earlier affaire < French, Old French afaire for a faire to do, equivalent to a (< Latin ad to) + faire ≪ Latin facere; replacing Middle English afere < Old French
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dan Wall, Live Nation’s executive vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs, said the settlement was in the public interest and included most of what Slater had sought.
Inara George looks back on it now as wistfully as someone remembering a love affair or a semester abroad.
From Los Angeles Times
The blanket was a poor threadbare affair compared with the ones we had given up, but at least the overcrowding produced its own warmth.
From Literature
His wife, Dejanira, instantly—and incorrectly—suspects that her husband is having an affair with one of them, the beautiful princess Iole.
The only major American professional sport that takes place outdoors in the summer is a suitably languid and loose-limbed affair.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
