affinity
noun/əˈfɪnɪti/
Etymology From Middle English affinite, from Old French affinité. Ostensibly equivalent to affine + -ity. See also af-.
13 senses
- 1A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.
- 2A family relationship through marriage of a relative…
- 3A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who…
- 4The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
- 5Any romantic relationship.
- 6A love interest; a paramour.
- 7Any passionate love for something.
- 8Resemblances between biological populations, suggesting…
- 9Structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances…
- 10An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms…
- 11The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
- 12A tendency to keep a task running on the same processor…
- 13An automorphism of affine space.
A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.
A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity (e.g. sister).
A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who is affinal.
The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
- There are, of course, certain differences of detail; for example, the placing of the safety valves on the boiler barrel behind the dome, which follows the practice in the Riddles 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 locomotives for the Ministry of Supply; but taken all in all, Britannia's boiler has a closer affinity with the Doncaster designs than with any other.1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:
- A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.1997, Chris Horrocks, “Introducing Foucault”, in The Renaissance Episteme, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 67:
Any romantic relationship.
A love interest; a paramour.
- "Cut it short, sis, cut it short," he would growl at her if she started to murmur sweet "coo-coos" to her affinity stationed on the other end of the wire.1916 August 23, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 248, column 3:
Any passionate love for something.
Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds.
Medicine, Sciences The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses.
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences An automorphism of affine space.
- Derived terms
- affinitive, bioaffinity, chemoaffinity, disaffinity, equiaffinity, hydroaffinity, immunoaffinity, lipoaffinity, metalloaffinity, microaffinity, nonaffinity, photoaffinity, self-affinity, socioaffinity, affinity card, affinity fraud, affinity group, affinity reagent, chemical affinity, elective affinity, electron affinity
- Hyponyms
- microaffinity