affinity

noun af·fin·i·ty \ə-ˈfi-nə-tē\

: a feeling of closeness and understanding that someone has for another person because of their similar qualities, ideas, or interests

: a liking for or an attraction to something

: a quality that makes people or things suited to each other

plural af·fin·i·ties

Full Definition of AFFINITY

: relationship by marriage

a : sympathy marked by community of interest : kinship

b (1) : an attraction to or liking for something <people with an affinity to darkness — Mark Twain> <pork and fennel have a natural affinity for each other — Abby Mandel> (2) : an attractive force between substances or particles that causes them to enter into and remain in chemical combination

c : a person especially of the opposite sex having a particular attraction for one

a : likeness based on relationship or causal connection <found an affinity between the teller of a tale and the craftsman — Mary McCarthy> <this investigation, with affinities to a case history, a psychoanalysis, a detective story — Oliver Sacks>

b : a relation between biological groups involving resemblance in structural plan and indicating a common origin

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Examples of AFFINITY

Jefferson's personal debts continued to mount … . His addiction to French wine, like his affinity for French ideas, never came to grips with the more mundane realities. —Joseph J. Ellis, American Heritage, May/June 1993
… neither virus has an affinity for T cells. —Robert C. Gallo, Scientific American, 1987
Animals sharing this basic architecture may have no closer affinity than a beetle and a squid. —Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, 1985
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Origin of AFFINITY

Middle English affinite, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French affinité, from Latin affinitas, from affinis bordering on, related by marriage, from ad- + finis end, border

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to AFFINITY

Synonyms: affection, inclination, aptitude, bent, bias, bone, devices, disposition, genius, habitude, impulse, leaning, partiality, penchant, predilection, predisposition, proclivity, propensity, tendency, turn

Synonym Discussion of AFFINITY

attraction, affinity, sympathy mean the relationship existing between things or persons that are naturally or involuntarily drawn together. attraction implies the possession by one thing of a quality that pulls another to it <felt an attraction to danger>. affinity implies a susceptibility or predisposition on the part of the one drawn <an affinity for mathematics>. sympathy implies a reciprocal or natural relation between two things that are both susceptible to the same influence <two minds in sympathy>.