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Affinity vs Antipathy - What's the difference?

affinity | antipathy |

As nouns the difference between affinity and antipathy

is that affinity is a natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing while antipathy is contrariety or opposition in feeling; settled aversion or dislike; repugnance; distaste.

affinity

English

Noun

(wikipedia affinity) (affinities)
  • 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 such relationship. Affinal kinsman or kinswoman.
  • The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
  • * 1997 , Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault'', page 67, ''The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865):
  • 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.
  • Any romantic relationship.
  • Any passionate love for something.
  • (taxonomy) resemblances between biological populations; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin, type or stock.
  • (geology) structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
  • (chemistry) An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds
  • (medicine) The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
  • (computing) tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses
  • (geometry) An automorphism of affine space.
  • Derived terms

    * affinity card * affinity fraud * affinity reagent * microaffinity

    antipathy

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (antipathies)
  • Contrariety or opposition in feeling; settled aversion or dislike; repugnance; distaste.
  • * Inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments to others, are to be avoided. --Washington.
  • Natural contrariety; incompatibility; repugnancy of qualities; as, oil and water have antipathy.
  • * A habit is generated of thinking that a natural antipathy exists between hope and reason. --I. Taylor.
  • Usage notes

    * Prepositions: "antipathy" is followed by "to", "against", or "between"; also sometimes by "for".

    Synonyms

    * hatred, aversion, dislike, disgust, distaste, enmity, ill will, repugnance, contrariety, opposition

    Antonyms

    * sympathy