boyfriend
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
The former boyfriend of music sensation Rihanna was handed an eight-month jail term suspended for a year -- meaning he will not be imprisoned unless he commits another offence during the period.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
Reams of magazine profiles spotlight everyday people choosing to share their lives with an AI boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
She and her boyfriend, Cheng Ming, plan to study AI in hopes of finding tech jobs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The woman’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, then placed Gonzalez in handcuffs, according to the statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
Also, I didn’t know Calista had a boyfriend.
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
“I’ve made lots of mistakes with boyfriends and husbands,” said Johnson, who has been married three times.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
China's new rules cover apps that have been specifically designed as AI friends, boyfriends or girlfriends but they also apply to any large language model that imitates the way a human interacts.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Convent boarding houses are affordable and clean, but there are rules: curfews, chores and sometimes nuns who vet boyfriends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
“But you’re moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren’t you?”
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
