affection
[noun]
Synonyms: fondness, attachment, care, feeling, goodwill, kindness, liking, love, tenderness, warmth

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Antonyms: antipathy, coldness
Contrasted words: aversion, hate, hatred, dislike, distaste, coolness, frigidity
Related Words: leaning, penchant, propensity, bias, predilection, bent, faculty, turn, sympathy, tenderness, warmth, attention, concern, interest, doting, enjoying, access, attack, paroxysm, spell, derangement, disordering, disturbance

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English Thesaurus: love, adore, be in love (with somebody), be infatuated with somebody, have a crush on somebody, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

af‧fec‧tion /əˈfekʃən/ noun [singular, uncountable]

1. a feeling of liking or love and caring Synonym : fondness
affection for
Bart had a deep affection for the old man.
She looked back on those days with affection.
Their father never showed them much affection.
The church was held in great affection (=loved and cared about a lot) by the local residents.

2. sb’s affections the feelings of love and caring that someone has:
Africa has always had a special place in my affections.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

affection
noun
ADJ. deep, genuine, great, real, special, strong, warm | mutual
VERB + AFFECTION feel, have, hold sb in, retain He was held in great affection by hundreds of students.
display, express, give sb, show (sb) | get, receive | crave, need, want He just wants a bit of affection.
gain, win She had tried hard to win his affection.
alienate
PREP. with ~ He'll be remembered with genuine affection.
~ for I have a deep affection for his mother.
~ to/towards The teacher showed affection towards all her pupils.
PHRASES a display of affection I don't go in for public displays of affection.
a feeling of affection a strong feeling of affection
love and affection I yearn for the love and affection I once had.
the object of sb's affections The object of his affections was a young opera singer.
a sign of affection, a show of affection

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

love to like someone very much and care a lot about them – used about people in your family or someone who you are sexually attracted to:
I love my wife and children very much.
Have you ever said ‘I love you’ and not really meant it?
adore to love and admire someone very much:
When she was a child she adored her father.
be in love (with somebody) to feel that you love someone and want to have a romantic relationship with them:
We were both young and very much in love.
Karen was in love with a man who was much older than her.
be infatuated with somebody to love someone a lot and keep thinking about them, in a way that seems silly because you do not know them very well:
He became infatuated with a woman he met at a conference.
have a crush on somebody to love and be sexually attracted to someone you are not having a relationship with, usually someone older:
Jane had a crush on the German teacher.
be crazy about somebody informal to love someone very much – used for emphasis:
She’s crazy about you.
be devoted to somebody to love someone very much and give them a lot of attention:
He was devoted to his wife and his children.
dote on somebody written to love someone very much, especially a much younger family member, and behave very kindly to them:
He dotes on his grandchildren.
be in love
Are you in love with her?
fall in love (=start being in love)
I fell in love with her the minute I saw her.
find love (=meet someone to love)
I never thought I would find love.
return sb’s love (=love someone who loves you)
Estella does not return Pip’s love.
love at first sight (=when you love someone as soon as you meet them)
For Marion and Ron it was love at first sight.
very much in love
They were obviously very much in love.
madly/deeply in love (=very much in love)
I married Dan because I was madly in love.
head over heels in love (=very much in love)
The two of them fell head over heels in love.
love is blind (=used to say that people do not notice the faults of the person they love)
Love is blind, I guess. How else could he stand to be with her?
true love (=real love)
She felt that she had finally found true love.
real love
You could see real love in their eyes.
romantic love
Romantic love was not always the reason for marriage.
sexual love
Venus was the Roman goddess of sexual love.
unrequited love (=love for someone who does not love you)
She had a secret, unrequited love for Harrison.
undying love (=love that does not stop)
She and I swore undying love.
passionate love
He wrote about his passionate love for her.
a love song/story
a tragic love story
a love letter
She found a love letter from another woman in his wallet.
affection noun [uncountable] a gentle feeling of love which makes you want to be kind to someone and show them that you love them – used especially about friends and members of your family:
My mother never showed us us any affection.
Alison and I had been at school together, and I felt great affection for her.
devotion noun [uncountable] very strong love for someone in which you want to give them a lot of attention and look after them – used especially about strong feelings of love for your wife, husband, children etc:
His recovery is largely due to the devotion of his wife and family
passion noun [uncountable] a strong and exciting feeling of love for someone you are extremely sexually attracted to:
He loved her still, with just the same passion as he always had.
There was no passion in their relationship.
infatuation noun [uncountable and countable] a strong feeling of love for someone, in which you cannot stop thinking about them, and which seems silly because you do not know them very well:
She hoped that his ridiculous infatuation would soon wear off.
His infatuation with Diane seemed to be growing.
a childhood infatuation
romance noun [uncountable] the feeling of loving someone and the nice things you do to show this – used about someone you are sexually attracted to:
The romance had gone out of their relationship.
In the UK, one in ten people have found romance over the Internet.
crush noun [countable] a very strong feeling of love and sexual attraction for someone such as a teacher or a famous person, especially when there is no chance of you having a relationship with that person because you are much younger than them :
She had a teenage crush on one of her teachers.
I had a big crush on Tom Cruise when I was growing up.
a schoolgirl crush

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

love noun [uncountable] a feeling of liking someone very much and caring a lot about them – used about people in your family, or someone you feel sexually attracted to:
All children need love, attention, and encouragement.
We don’t need words to express our love for each other.
affection noun [uncountable] a gentle feeling of love which makes you want to be kind to someone and show them that you love them – used especially about friends and members of your family:
My mother never showed us us any affection.
Alison and I had been at school together, and I felt great affection for her.
devotion noun [uncountable] very strong love for someone in which you want to give them a lot of attention and look after them – used especially about strong feelings of love for your wife, husband, children etc:
His recovery is largely due to the devotion of his wife and family
passion noun [uncountable] a strong and exciting feeling of love for someone you are extremely sexually attracted to:
He loved her still, with just the same passion as he always had.
There was no passion in their relationship.
infatuation noun [uncountable and countable] a strong feeling of love for someone, in which you cannot stop thinking about them, and which seems silly because you do not know them very well:
She hoped that his ridiculous infatuation would soon wear off.
His infatuation with Diane seemed to be growing.
a childhood infatuation
romance noun [uncountable] the feeling of loving someone and the nice things you do to show this – used about someone you are sexually attracted to:
The romance had gone out of their relationship.
In the UK, one in ten people have found romance over the Internet.
crush noun [countable] a very strong feeling of love and sexual attraction for someone such as a teacher or a famous person, especially when there is no chance of you having a relationship with that person because you are much younger than them :
She had a teenage crush on one of her teachers.
I had a big crush on Tom Cruise when I was growing up.
a schoolgirl crush

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲