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
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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!
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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
-
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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
-
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 had all those hit records when I was in junior high, and I love the fact that all the sudden there’s a female voice, then a male voice.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
"All my strength and love to my homeland. Let’s hold each other tight," said Colombian pop megastar Shakira.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
One thing hurting the chicken business: Consumers love beef.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
And here I am, in the most secure relationship of my life, with the person whose love and support helped me heal, still struggling.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
I love it like this, because I can fill it with whatever adventures Grace and I go on.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"Everyone loves a giant dinosaur," said study co-author Roger Benson, the Macaulay Curator of Dinosaur Paleobiology at the Museum.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
Fellow birder John White said: "His knowledge is unbounded. He loves it. He'll talk for ever about birds."
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
"We have a sandbox he loves, and it's really hard to enjoy the space because we just get annihilated with mosquito bites," she said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
As an actor, she loves watching people trying to lie — and failing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
I’m still getting used to having a mom who loves me.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
"Every time I pass it I want to cry. I would have loved to have seen it back on its feet."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
“I loved these machines when we would go to the zoo. It was a must-have every time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
“She wouldn’t want nobody to do this to one of her loved ones.”
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
I’ve loved the nods from people also wearing Knicks gear on their morning coffee runs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The snow came, as it has today, and of course little Karli loved that.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
But trauma triggers can be an issue when conception happens outside a clinic, in the context of a loving relationship—and they can be scary to deal with.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
“What I learned about pro wrestlers, who are incredibly generous and loving people, is that they are all hurt, all the time. They’re all performing through pain,” he notes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
I have spent ten years loving Lesbos as an inheritance, a thing I own from a distance, and the smoke on my screen has shamed that love into something more useful.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
He was spoiled by his loving, indulgent mother but susceptible to bullying among his streetwise friends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Jonah plays it up, loving the fact that I’m hanging on his every word.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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.
