boyfriend
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of boyfriend
Explanation
A boyfriend is a male romantic partner. Your cousin might ask if she can bring her boyfriend to the family Thanksgiving dinner this year. Usually, your boyfriend is a boy or man you're romantically involved with. Your aunt might join a dating site after breaking up with her boyfriend, and your ten year old neighbor might announce she has a boyfriend after a boy leaves a candy bar on her desk. The words boyfriend and girlfriend first appeared in the early 1900s, around the start of modern dating in the US.
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.
Meanwhile, Aniston also spoke highly about her boyfriend in a November 2025 interview with Elle.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
Platner, in damage-control mode, acknowledged that he was occasionally a lousy boyfriend but denied any sort of physical abuse, swore that he has cleaned up his act, and pledged that no more skeletons will emerge.
From Slate • Jun. 6, 2026
The former publicist rose to fame in 2007 when he joined the cast of The Hills, a spin-off of the MTV reality show Laguna Beach, as the boyfriend of Heidi Montag.
From BBC • Jun. 3, 2026
Yet even my former boyfriend from England, who I imagine having grown up with a silver spoon, would go on to acknowledge to me that Olive Garden was good in spite of his initial skepticism.
From Salon • Jun. 3, 2026
“You’re a liar, Kingston James, and she doesn’t need a boyfriend like you.”
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
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.
