love
Americannoun
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loves
plural
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a strong feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, such as for a parent, child, friend, or pet.
He bent and kissed his newborn daughter on the brow, his heart full of love and gratitude.
- Synonyms:
- friendliness, regard, inclination, liking
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a profoundly tender, passionate affection, often mingled with sexual desire, for another person.
The couple’s ardent love for each other, poured out in these love letters, survived their wartime separation.
- Synonyms:
- adoration, passion, warmth, predilection, fondness, tenderness
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sexual passion or desire.
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active, self-giving concern for the well-being of others.
Love of one's neighbor is the greatest virtue.
What this suffering world needs is more love.
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a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
I long to be with you, my love.
He was my first and only love.
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(used as a term of endearment, affection, or the like).
Would you like to see a movie, love?
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a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
It's the story of her many loves, told through the eyes of a journalist.
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Love, a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
-
strong enthusiasm or liking for anything.
His huge personal library testified to his love of books.
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a thing for which one has a strong enthusiasm or liking.
The theater was her great love.
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Religion. the benevolent affection and deep compassion of God for all creatures, or the reverent devotion returned from them to God.
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Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
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a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.
verb (used with object)
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loves,
present (3rd person singular)
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loved,
past participle, past
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loving
present participle
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to have a warm personal attachment to or deep affection for.
All her students love her.
I fuss over you, I know, but I love you and I want you to be safe.
- Synonyms:
- like
-
to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection, often mingled with sexual desire, for (another person).
-
to feel a strong liking for or take great pleasure in; enjoy actively and with enthusiasm.
I love music.
He's loving his new job.
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to feel or show active, self-giving concern for.
Love your neighbor—even the one you don’t like.
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to feel or express reverent devotion toward; adore.
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to need or require; benefit greatly from.
Plants love sunlight.
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to have sexual intercourse with.
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to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
verb (used without object)
-
loves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
loved,
past participle, past
-
loving
present participle
verb phrase
idioms
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for love,
-
out of devotion, affection, liking, or enjoyment.
-
without compensation.
He volunteered at the animal shelter for love.
-
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for the love of, in consideration of; for the sake of.
For the love of mercy, stop that noise!
-
no love lost, dislike; animosity.
There was no love lost between the two brothers.
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in love, infused with or feeling deep affection or passion.
He was a youth always in love.
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in love with, feeling deep affection or passion for (a person, idea, occupation, etc.); enamored of.
I was in love with the girl next door.
Anyone spending that many hours here without pay must be in love with their work!
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make love,
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to engage in sexual activity.
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to embrace and kiss as lovers.
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verb
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(tr) to have a great attachment to and affection for
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(tr) to have passionate desire, longing, and feelings for
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(tr) to like or desire (to do something) very much
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(tr) to make love to
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(intr) to be in love
noun
-
-
an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing
-
( as modifier )
love song
love story
-
-
a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
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wholehearted liking for or pleasure in something
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Christianity
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God's benevolent attitude towards man
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man's attitude of reverent devotion towards God
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Also: my love. a beloved person: used esp as an endearment
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informal a term of address, esp but not necessarily for a person regarded as likable
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(in tennis, squash, etc) a score of zero
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to become in love
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without payment
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(used with a negative) in any circumstances
I wouldn't eat a snail for love or money
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for the sake of
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in a state of strong emotional attachment and usually sexual attraction
-
-
to have sexual intercourse (with)
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archaic to engage in courtship (with)
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Usage
What are other ways to say love?
The noun love refers to a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. When should you use love in place of affection or devotion? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lovesimple
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lovessimple
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have lovedperfect
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has lovedperfect
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am lovingprogressive
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are lovingprogressive
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is lovingprogressive
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have been lovingperfect progressive
-
has been lovingperfect progressive
Past
-
lovedsimple
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had lovedperfect
-
was lovingprogressive
-
were lovingprogressive
-
had been lovingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of love
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun love, louve, luve, Old English lufu, cognate with Old Frisian luve, Old High German luba, Gothic lubō; verb derived from the noun; akin to Latin libēre (earlier lubēre ) “to be pleasing,” Polish lubić “to like, enjoy;” see also lief ( def. )
Explanation
How can we love our partners, our parents, sunsets at the beach, cats, and Fridays? The types of love listed here mean different things — but what remains is the certainty, at least for now, that what you love is what you adore. Love is an expression of emotion. Love, it is said, can make you walk miles barefoot in the rain just to see the person you can't stop thinking about. Or, it can make you cross the street because the store "you love" is located there. Love is a versatile word — like what it describes. Love takes many forms, but the word typically describes an affection that is deep and emotional. If you say you’re “in love,” that tends to refer to the romantic kind of love.
Vocabulary lists containing 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.
See Examples For:
He said it was a "good experience" for disabled children and adults, particularly those who love motorsports.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Which is to say, I love other people’s parties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Keeve depicts Mizrahi’s process through personality-rich vignettes that speak to all of the love and excitement in his designs.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
After a short-lived foray into selling lab-grown diamonds for jewelry, De Beers is now staking its future on convincing new generations of consumers that love isn’t forever unless it is sealed with a—natural—stone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
He folds his arms over his chest and replies, “I’m not really sure where to put my emotions. On one hand, I love this ‘act out to make up for never acting out.’
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Misery loves company, so enjoy the global pity party that’s developing over governments’ fiscal distress.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
“I also see how much she loves her house and I think the passion she has for it outweighs her fear of this ghost,” Zak said at the time.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
But Kyla says she personally loves the ones which play on the lyrics "baby" and "honey" by using dolls and real honey as props.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Chef Isabel Coss described herself as someone who loves feeling “out of place.”
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
Olya giggled and elbowed Mila, who said, “Because she loves Ivan.”
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Experts tell us making your child feel loved comes from more than just a simple turn of phrase.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
When factories couldn’t keep up with surging demand during the pandemic, they believed industry giants would pour resources into making stuff the world already loved.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Rivadeneira said she even scrubbed her personal social media accounts of photos of her young daughter after trolls began attacking loved ones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Some Nepali families who were searching for their missing loved ones had begun holding symbolic funerals in the last few days, in a sign of dimming hope for survivors.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
It had been the birth of the garden, but even still, Clare had never loved the other mushrooms the way he’d loved Captain.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
"Avocado will never fail you. It's such a loving and lovable fruit. I have fallen in love with this fruit now. I'm planning to plant another three acres — only avocado."
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“The allegation that Kelli manipulates or controls Jerry is false and deeply unfair. They share a loving and supportive partnership of more than 25 years,” a spokesman for Gerald and Kelli O. Ford said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
"He was the cleverest, funniest, loving person. His life has just been cut too short too soon."
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Many are surrounded by loving, supportive family too.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
There’s no way Mom was in Bermuda this whole time, which means her speech about loving island life was a lie.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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.
