relationship
Americannoun
-
relationships
plural
-
a connection, association, or involvement.
- Synonyms:
- kinship, alliance, dependence
-
connection between persons by blood or marriage.
- Synonyms:
- consanguinity, affinity
-
an emotional or other connection between people.
the relationship between teachers and students.
-
a sexual involvement; affair.
noun
-
the state of being connected or related
-
association by blood or marriage; kinship
-
the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between two parties, countries, people, etc
a business relationship
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an emotional or sexual affair or liaison
-
logic maths another name for relation
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of relationship
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.
Vocabulary lists containing relationship
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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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:
They they spent years as friends, and it was not until Anna Maria returned to Edinburgh in 2024 that their relationship became something more.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
One of the strongest clues came from the relationship between the superconductivity enhancement and the characteristic frequency of the dark cavity.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026
As the city moves to ban wells and new state laws require buffer zones and plugging idle wells, “the relationship between residential communities and oil drilling operators has been reset,” she wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Telling the Ephesians about our relationship to God, St. Paul writes: “For we are his workmanship.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Nigro and Collins both acted fatherly toward the boy, but Collins’s relationship lasted more than fifteen years.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Alexis Yim, a marketing professor at Radford University who co-authored a study on how cuteness impacts relationships with AI agents, said that “cute, appealing appearances” can activate the reward-related areas of the brain.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
"Some of those growing relationships, such as Canada's rapidly expanding relationship with the EU, could produce real dividends," she added.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“It says something that you do not have strong working relationships with any of your colleagues. Not one,” Bass said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Google researchers have worried internally about how Gemini models have fueled user delusions and advised about social relationships in a way that amplifies slights and overpraises, which can be dangerous for children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
As explained above, scholars cannot even agree on the basics, such as the existence of private property, nuclear families and monogamous relationships.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
