boyfriend
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of boyfriend
Explanation
A boyfriend is a male romantic partner. Your cousin might ask if she can bring her boyfriend to the family Thanksgiving dinner this year. Usually, your boyfriend is a boy or man you're romantically involved with. Your aunt might join a dating site after breaking up with her boyfriend, and your ten year old neighbor might announce she has a boyfriend after a boy leaves a candy bar on her desk. The words boyfriend and girlfriend first appeared in the early 1900s, around the start of modern dating in the US.
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:
Mindful of the online horror stories about post-show delays, my boyfriend and I decided to duck out early to beat the rush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Kyran Smith had gone to the reception of the Maidenhead branch of the hotel chain in the early hours in December 2022 and said he was the woman's boyfriend.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
In 2023, she was struggling financially, and she and her live-in boyfriend were experiencing increasing strain in their relationship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
He’s having a fraught phone conversation with his mother, who’s upset to learn that the reason his boyfriend can’t pick him up is that they’ve broken up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Her boyfriend, Liam, and her best friend, Amber, are working there, too —assisting the art and music teachers.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
The wedding, this theory goes, was payback for 20 years’ worth of media that characterized her as desperate and lovelorn and having only herself to blame for boyfriends who wilted under the media’s gaze.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
During Tuesday's proceedings, the court heard from Nora Haukland's former boyfriends, including one who spoke of their "peaceful break-up" and his respect for her, and another who described their relationship as turbulent.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2026
It includes dealing with new boyfriends of family members pretending to be who they aren’t.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2025
I have had other boyfriends, but I only saw them at school, or after school.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
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.
