affinity
American Heritage Dictionary:
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af·fin·i·ty
(ə-fĭn'ĭ-tē) 
n., pl., -ties.
n., pl., -ties.
- A natural attraction, liking, or feeling of kinship.
- Relationship by marriage.
- An inherent similarity between persons or things. See synonyms at likeness.
- Biology. A relationship or resemblance in structure between species that suggests a common origin.
- Immunology. The attraction between an antigen and an antibody.
- Chemistry. An attraction or force between particles that causes them to combine.
[Middle English affinite, from Old French afinite, from Latin affīnitās, from affīnis, related by marriage. See affined.]
USAGE NOTE In the sense of "attraction," affinity may be followed by of, between, or with. Thus one may speak of the close affinity of James and Samuel, or of the affinity between James and Samuel, or of James's affinity with Samuel. In its chemical use affinity is generally followed by for: a dye with an affinity for synthetic fabrics. • One might want to avoid using affinity as a simple synonym for liking since 62 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the example Her affinity for living in California led her to reject a chance to return to New York. Nevertheless, the more sophisticated tone inherent in this use of the word can lend an archness to certain contexts, as when Barbara Tuchman writes of Kaiser Wilhelm's "affinity for coarse physical jokes practiced upon his courtiers." This may be why 65 percent of the Usage Panel approved of this quotation when it was presented as an example.
Fowler's Modern English Usage:
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affinity
When affinity implies a mutual relationship or attraction, it is normally followed by between or with (The affinity between Britain and most of her former colonies /
Beckett...stresses that he wrote the little book on order, not out of any deep affinity with Proust—M. Esslin, 1980).If the feeling is one-sided, it is necessary to use other words, such as sympathy, affection, feeling, etc., and these are followed by for. Affinity also has technical meanings, e.g. in metallurgy.
| affect, effect, aesthete, aesthetic, aerie, aery | |
| affix, aftermath, afterward, afterwards |
Barron's Marketing Dictionary:
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affinities
Groups of stores in close proximity to each other where each store offers the same merchandise as the other. For example, in many large metropolitan areas one can often find entire blocks where there are several stores side by side selling consumer electronic products or jewelry. Affinities allow consumers to comparison shop with relative ease.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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affinity
noun
- The quality or state of being alike: alikeness, analogy, comparison, correspondence, likeness, parallelism, resemblance, similarity, similitude, uniformity, uniformness. See same/different/compare.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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affinity
n
Definition: liking or inclination toward something
Antonyms: dislike, hatred
n
Definition: similarity
Antonyms: dissimilarity
West's Encyclopedia of American Law:
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Affinity
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
The relationship that a person has to the blood relatives of a spouse by virtue of the marriage.
The doctrine of affinity developed from a maxim of canon law that a husband and wife were made one by their marriage. There are three types of affinity. Direct affinity exists between the husband and his wife's relations by blood, or between the wife and the husband's relations by blood. Secondary affinity is between a spouse and the other spouse's relatives by marriage. Collateral affinity exists between a spouse and the relatives of the other spouse's relatives. The determination of affinity is important in various legal matters, such as deciding whether to prosecute a person for incest or whether to disqualify a juror for bias.
Word Tutor:
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affinity
IN BRIEF: Close relationship or connection.
Peter felt a strong affinity for Sarah.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry:
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affinity
- chemical attraction; the tendency of a chemical substance to combine with, bind to, or dissolve in other chemical substances.
- any measure of such chemical attraction.
- denoting biomolecular interaction that exhibits specificity.
| affine, afferent, afamin | |
| affinity adsorbent, affinity chromatography, affinity constant |
Saunders Veterinary Dictionary:
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affinity
1. attraction; a tendency to seek out or unite with another object or substance.
2. in chemistry, the tendency of two substances to form strong or weak chemical bonds forming molecules or complexes.
3. in immunology, the thermodynamic bond strength of an antigen–antibody complex.
- antibody a. — the strength of the binding interaction between antigen and antibody.
- drug a. — the attraction of a particular class of receptor to a drug, at a level sufficient to give an observable reaction. Such a drug is an agonist.
- a. maturation — the increased affinity of antibody for an antigen which occurs during the course of an immune response.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'affinity'
- Kinship and Ancestry - affinity: kinship relationship by marriage
- Kinship, Marriage, and Other Customs - affinity: kinship relationship based on marriage
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Affinity
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Look up affinity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Affinity is a word used in a variety of fields, usually to indicate some kind of preference, relationship, or a potential or actual closeness between two entities.
Articles dealing with various usages of the word: affinity include:
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Contents
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Commerce and law
- Affinity fraud, a type of scam targeting a specific demographic
- Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique used to identify products likely to be bought together or the relationship of demand for a product to other external factors such as weather.
- Affinity marketing, a method of extending market reach by forming partnerships and cross-selling relationships.
- Affinity (law), kinship by marriage
Religion and conviction
- Affinity (canon law), a kinship arising from the sexual intercourse of a man and a woman
- Affinity (Christian organisation), formerly known as the British Evangelical Council
- Affinity group - small protest or activist groups of 10-30 people
Science and technology
- Affinity chromatography
- Affinity electrophoresis
- Affinity laws, in hydraulics, used to express the relationship between variables involved in fan or pump performance
- Affinity (mathematics) - an affine transformation (which preserves collinearity)
- Affinity (pharmacology) - in biochemistry, protein-ligand binding
- Affinity (sociology) - shared interests and commitments between persons in groups, "willingness to associate"; see also interpersonal compatibility and friendliness.
- Affinity (taxonomy) - mainly in natural history - resemblance suggesting a common descent or type
- Electron affinity
- Processor affinity, a computing term for the assignment of a task to a given core of a multicore CPU.
- In chemistry, chemical affinity is the willingness of two or more elements or compounds to form a chemical or attractive bond of some type, and equally, as a term for the strength of that bond once formed.
- In philology, a type of resemblance between languages, suggesting that such languages stem from a common stock;
- In philosophy, shared or matching lines of thought, conclusions or objectives;
- In geology, minerals and formations where evidence suggests common origins and constitutions.
- in natural history, resemblances between biological communities (usually taxons) that suggest that they are of a common origin, type or stock.
Various other meanings, media, and games
- Affinity (band), A Jazz/Rock band active in the late 60s and early 70s
- Affinity (Philippines band), a collective of Manila's premier jazz musicians
- The Leper Affinity, a song from Blackwater Park by Opeth
- Affinity (Fire Emblem), the numerous bonuses units in the videogame Fire Emblem have from sharing support conversations with one another
- "Affinity" (Stargate SG-1), a season 8 episode of Stargate SG-1
- Affinity (novel), 1999 novel by Sarah Waters
- Affinity (film), a 2008 feature film based on Sarah Waters' novel
- Elective Affinities - the concept of chemical affinities as a metaphor for human emotional affinities
- Affinity, an independent jazz record label formed in California in 1991
- See BMJ Group for Affinity (BMJ), a publishing partnership programme of the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd for independent journals
See also
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This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Affinity
Dansk (Danish)
n. - slægtsskab, samhørighed
idioms:
- a natural affinity for naturbestemt samhørighed
- affinity card medlemsrabatkort, kreditkort
Nederlands (Dutch)
affiniteit, verwantschap, relatie
Français (French)
n. - affinité, ressemblance, rapport, (Jur) affinité avec, attraction, attrait
idioms:
- a natural affinity for une affinité naturelle pour
- affinity card carte d'affiliation, carte de réduction (pour des membres), (GB) carte bancaire (pour des dons aux ¯uvres caritatives)
Deutsch (German)
n. - Verwandschaft, Neigung, Affinität
idioms:
- a natural affinity for natürliche Neigung
- affinity card Kreditkarte, bei der ein Teil des Geldes der Umwelt zugute kommt, (econ.) firmeneigene Kreditkarte
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (χημική) συγγένεια, (αμοιβαία) έλξη, συνάφεια, πνευματική συγγένεια, σύμπνοια, εξ αγχιστείας συγγένεια
idioms:
- a natural affinity for φυσική ροπή προς
- affinity card τραπεζική κάρτα με απόδοση μέρους των κερδών σε κοινωφελή σκοπό
Italiano (Italian)
affinità, attrazione
idioms:
- a natural affinity for affinità naturale per
- affinity card tessera di riduzione per soci
Português (Portuguese)
n. - afinidade (f), simpatia (f), parentesco (m) por casamento, atração (f)
idioms:
- a natural affinity for uma simpatia natural por
- affinity card cartão (m) de afinidade
Русский (Russian)
близость, родство
idioms:
- a natural affinity for природная склонность к
- affinity card кредитная карточка для членов предприятия/клуба
Español (Spanish)
n. - afinidad
idioms:
- a natural affinity for tiene una afinidad natural por
- affinity card tarjeta de crédito con finalidades benéficas, tarjeta de descuento
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - släktskap, samhörighet
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
倾向, 喜好, 本性, 密切关系, 姻亲关系, 类同
idioms:
- a natural affinity for 对...有一种天生的亲近感, 与生俱来的...
- affinity card 亲善信用卡
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 傾向, 喜好, 本性, 密切關係, 姻親關係, 類同
idioms:
- a natural affinity for 對...有一種天生的親近感, 與生俱來的...
- affinity card 親善信用卡
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 인척[관계], 유사성, 취미, 친화력
idioms:
- a natural affinity for 자연계의 친화력
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 密接な関係, 姻戚関係, 好み
idioms:
- affinity card 提携先の割引などが受けられるカード
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مصاهره, إنجذاب, نسب, ألفه, ألقرابه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - חיבה או משיכה לאדם או לדבר, יחסים, בד"כ בנישואים, דימיון מבני בין חיות, צמחים ולשונות, דמיון בתכונות המעיד על קרבה, נטייה של חומרים כימיים מסוימים לתרכובות עם אחרים
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Barron's Marketing Dictionary
Dictionary of Marketing Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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West's Encyclopedia of American Law
West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.
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