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:
Recently, I went to a wedding where my boyfriend and I were the only people with corporate jobs.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
In initial reports, her father, John David Schwallier, and her boyfriend said the actor died of complications from bacterial meningitis and a blood infection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“But if I’m going to be a partner in a law firm by the time I’m 30, I need a boyfriend who’s not such a complete bonehead.”
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
I didn't tell my boyfriend my age when we started dating.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
You had to keep your boyfriend on his toes.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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
The wedding, this theory goes, was payback for 20 years’ worth of media that characterized her as desperate and lovelorn and having only herself to blame for boyfriends who wilted under the media’s gaze.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
It includes dealing with new boyfriends of family members pretending to be who they aren’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2025
But it's not just influencers who don't want to post their boyfriends.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025
I access his memories and discover that he and Austin first became boyfriends at this very celebration, a year ago this weekend.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
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.
