relationship

American  

[ri-lay-shuhn-ship] / rɪˈleɪ ʃənˌʃɪp /

noun

• relationships
  plural

1. a connection, association, or involvement.

   Synonyms:

   kinship, alliance, dependence

2. connection between persons by blood or marriage.

   Synonyms:

   consanguinity, affinity

3. an emotional or other connection between people.

   the relationship between teachers and students.

4. a sexual involvement; affair.

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relationship British  

/ rɪˈleɪʃənʃɪp /

noun

1. the state of being connected or related

2. association by blood or marriage; kinship

3. the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between two parties, countries, people, etc

   a business relationship

4. an emotional or sexual affair or liaison

5. logic maths another name for relation

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Synonym Usage

Relationship, kinship refer to connection with others by blood or by marriage. Relationship can be applied to connection either by birth or by marriage: relationship to a ruling family. Kinship generally denotes common descent and implies a more intimate connection than relationship: the ties and obligations of kinship.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prerelationship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• relationships
  plural

Etymology

Origin of relationship

First recorded in 1735–45; relation + -ship

Explanation

When you're in a relationship, you're emotionally involved or at least connected in some way. If you're related to somebody — your parents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins — you share a family relationship with them. You can also use relationship to describe dealings between various groups, as “Members of the European Union have a relationship of economic interconnectedness,” or “A lease helps define your relationship with your landlord.” You'll also see relationship used with interactions that don't directly involve people. In many of these cases, the word relation is better. For example, in the sentence "We are always looking at the relationship between ticket price and sales," it would be better to use relation.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relationship relationships

"We will discover the extraordinary relationship we have with the ocean. One that has never been more important to understand."

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

That might have been part of my personal resistance, that my relationship with the material was based on the people who wrote it, and I’m not big on nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

The London-headquartered bank does not specify how many people it employs in its UK wealth business but it is thought to have hundreds of relationship managers, the FT added.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

She calls her relationship with Israel “toxic,” the weight of a country that never quite lets go.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Music and mathematics: Modest support for the oft-claimed relationship.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

These relationships are being managed in keeping with the policies of NYU Langone Health.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

It’s an invitation to get good at conflict so that we can have better, more vibrant, closer relationships in our life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

She has also teamed up with Steve Speirs in a six-part comedy series called Better Later, about the challenges of relationships in middle age.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Social isolation is an objective measure of the quantity of social connection in behavior, while loneliness is a subjective measure of a person’s emotional dissatisfaction with the quality of their relationships.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

He found, for instance, that among 605 notable men who lived between 1453 and 1853, there were 102 familial relationships: one in six of all accomplished men were apparently related.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• accord
• affair
• communication
• contact
• exchange
• liaison
• link
• marriage
• rapport
• relation
• tie