love affair
Americannoun
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love affairs
plural
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a romantic relationship or episode between lovers; an amour.
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an active enthusiasm for something.
my love affair with sailing.
noun
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a romantic or sexual relationship, esp a temporary one, between two people
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a great enthusiasm or liking for something
a love affair with ballet
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An intimate sexual relationship, as in They had a torrid love affair many years ago . This expression dates from about 1600, when it referred merely to the experiences connected with being in love. The current sense dates from the second half of the 1800s.
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A strong enthusiasm, as in We can't ignore America's love affair with the automobile . [Mid-1900s]
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of love affair
First recorded in 1585–95
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.
Whether this latest love affair with leverage in the U.S. ends the same way South Korea’s did remains to be seen.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 30, 2026
It’s the grunting culmination of a love affair that began when Higdon, a retired cancer surgeon, encountered a line of yaks in Nepal not far from Mt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Individual investors’ yearslong love affair with the market’s biggest tech stocks is starting to cool off, reports Hannah Erin Lang.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
And they wrap up with Giant Peach - a song about growing up in London and the band's "love affair" with the "this dark and pretty town".
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
My problems may have seemed big to me in high school, but I wasn't dealing with arranged marriages to the wrong man or a love affair that would leave me ostracized from my entire family.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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.
