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What is the difference between love and affection?

love | affection |

Affection is a synonym of love.



As nouns the difference between love and affection

is that love is strong affection while affection is the act of affecting or acting upon.

As verbs the difference between love and affection

is that love is to have a strong affection for (someone or something) while affection is to feel an affection, emotion or love for.

As a proper noun Love

is {{surname|lang=en}.

love

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . The closing-of-a-letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

  • (label) Strong affection.
  • # An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.}}
  • # A deep or abiding liking for something.
  • # A profound and caring attraction towards someone.
  • #* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.
  • (countable) The object of one’s romantic feelings; a darling or sweetheart.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • Open the temple gates unto my love .
  • (colloquial)
  • (euphemistic) A sexual desire; sexual activity.
  • *1986, Ben Elton & al., ":
  • *:—What think you, my lord, of... love ?
  • *:—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.
  • (obsolete) A thin silk material.
  • * 1664 , (Robert Boyle), Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours,
  • Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love -Hood.
  • A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba .
  • Synonyms
    * (sense) baby, darling, lover, pet, sweetheart, honey, love bird * (term of address) mate, lover. darling, sweety
    Antonyms
    * (strong affection) hate, hatred, angst; malice, spite * (absence of love) indifference

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI
  • I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
  • * 2013 February 26, and (Nate Ruess), (Just Give Me a Reason) :
  • Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.
  • To need, thrive on.
  • (colloquial) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like .
  • To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
  • * John 3:16
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
  • * Matthew: 37-38
  • You shall love' the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall ' love your neighbor as yourself.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
  • To derive delight from a fact or situation.
  • To lust for.
  • (euphemistic) To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)
  • Antonyms
    * hate, despise
    Derived terms
    * all's fair in love and war * cupboard love * in love * I love you * fall in love * first love * lady love * love affair * love at first sight * love bird/lovebird * love bite/lovebite * love bomb * love bug * lovebunny * love child * loved-up * love egg * love feast * love game * love grass * love handle * love-hate * love-in * love-in-a-mist * love is blind * love life * lovely * love-making * love match * love nest * love potion * lover * love rat * lovertine * love seat * loveship * love-shyness * lovesick * love song * lovestone * love story * love tap * love toy * love triangle * lovey-dovey * loving kindness * loyal love * make love * unrequited love * no love lost * puppy love * tough love * true love * unconditional love

    See also

    * charity

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . See also (l).

    Verb

    (lov)
  • To praise; commend.
  • To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.
  • Etymology 3

    From the phrase Neither for love nor for money , meaning "nothing". The previously held belief that it originated from the (etyl) term , due to its shape, is no longer widely accepted.

    Noun

    (-)
  • (racquet sports) Zero, no score.
  • So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.
  • * The Field
  • He won the match by three sets to love .
  • * John Betjeman, A Subaltern's Love Song
  • Love -thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, / The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, / With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, / I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.

    Statistics

    *

    affection

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of affecting or acting upon.
  • The state of being affected.
  • An attribute; a quality or property; a condition; a bodily state; as, figure, weight, etc., are affections of bodies.
  • Bent of mind; a feeling or natural impulse or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind; any emotion; as, the benevolent affections, esteem, gratitude, etc.; the malevolent affections, hatred, envy, etc.; inclination; disposition; propensity; tendency.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-23, author=(Mark Cocker)
  • , volume=189, issue=11, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Wings of Desire , passage=Our affections for wild animals are distributed very unevenly. Take insects. Some 750,000 species have already been documented worldwide and the great American naturalist EO Wilson called them "the little things that run the world". Through their recycling of nutrients and the supply of base-level protein to a vast array of higher life forms, insects underpin the existence of life on this planet. Yet when it comes to human concern for creepy-crawlies, forget it.}}
  • A feeling of love or strong attachment.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Chapter 61
  • Mr. Bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly; his affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything else could do. He delighted in going to Pemberley, especially when he was least expected.
  • (medicine, archaic) Disease; morbid symptom; malady.
  • * Dunglison
  • a pulmonary affection

    Synonyms

    * (kind feeling) attachment, fondness, kindness, love, passion, tenderness

    Usage notes

    In the sense of "feeling of love or strong attachment", it is often in the plural; formerly followed by "to", but now more generally by "for" or "toward(s)", for example filial, social, or conjugal affections; to have an affection for or towards children

    Derived terms

    {{der3, affectional , affectionate , affectionated , affectionately , affectionateness , affectioned}}

    Verb

  • to feel an , emotion or love for.