limerence
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What is limerence? Limerence is a state of deep infatuation or romantic desire for someone, as in Rudy’s feelings for the pop star were limerence, not love, because he didn’t even know the star. Someone who is experiencing limerence is usually obsessive or intensely infatuated with someone else. Often, the object of a person’s limerence does not share the feelings and, as a result, the person may experience delusions or unreasonable desire for a romantic relationship with the person they feel limerence toward. Example: The limerence they experienced was palpable in the room.
Other Word Forms
- limerent adjective
Etymology
Origin of limerence
Arbitrary coinage by Dorothy Tennov, U.S. psychologist (1928-2007) in her book Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love
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.
My friend had known us from the beginning, the glimmer of limerence still in my eyes.
From Salon • Aug. 14, 2024
Grotesquerie is front and center — as part of the body horrors of adolescence, of course — but also used like a shorthand for the grisly anxiety, limerence, innocence, sinisterism of being young.
From Washington Post • Jan. 17, 2023
I had just become addicted to the endorphin rush of infatuation, a limerence that stole my common sense as it stanched my own pain and grief.
From New York Times • Oct. 1, 2021
Thinking about soulmates and being obsessed with limerence is very romantic.
From Time • Jun. 14, 2016
Class, your homework is to define limerence and use it in a sentence.
From "Booked" by Kwame Alexander
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.
