romance
[noun]
Synonyms:
- love affair, affair, amour, attachment, liaison, relationship
- excitement, charm, colour, fascination, glamour, mystery
- story, fairy tale, fantasy, legend, love story, melodrama, tale

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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 ▲

I. ro‧mance¹ /rəʊˈmæns, ˈrəʊmæns $ roʊˈmæns, ˈroʊ-/ noun
[Word Family: noun: romance, romantic, romanticism; verb: romance, romanticize; adjective: romantic ≠ UNROMANTIC, romanticized; adverb: romantically]
[Date: 1200-1300; Language: Old French; Origin: romans 'French, something written in French', from Latin romanicus 'Roman']

1. [countable] an exciting and often short relationship between two people who love each other ⇒ affair
romance with
Hemingway’s romance with his nurse inspired him to write ‘A Farewell to Arms’.
Michelle married him after a whirlwind romance (=one that happens very suddenly and quickly).
holiday romance British English summer romance American English (=one that happens during a holiday)
a short holiday romance

2. [uncountable] love, or a feeling of being in love:
The romance had gone out of their relationship.

3. [uncountable] the feeling of excitement and adventure that is related to a particular place, activity etc
romance of
the romance of Hollywood

4. [countable] a story about the love between two people:
romance novels

5. [countable] a story that has brave characters and exciting events:
a Medieval romance

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. romance² verb
[Word Family: noun: romance, romantic, romanticism; verb: romance, romanticize; adjective: romantic ≠ UNROMANTIC, romanticized; adverb: romantically]

1. [intransitive] to describe things that have happened in a way that makes them seem more important, interesting etc than they really were
romance about
an old man romancing about the past

2. [transitive] old-fashioned to try to persuade someone to love you

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

romance
noun
I. love affair
ADJ. brief | broken | whirlwind They married after a whirlwind romance.
holiday | teenage
VERB + ROMANCE have They had a brief romance in the eighties.
ROMANCE + VERB blossom

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

romance
II. romantic feeling
ADJ. true
VERB + ROMANCE find People find romance in strange places.
ROMANCE + VERB be in the air Could romance be in the air for the young prince?
PHRASES love and romance Most of her songs are about love and romance.

[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 ▲

relationship when two people spend time together or live together because they are romantically or sexually attracted to each other:
After her marriage broke up, she had a series of disastrous relationships.
⇒ relationship with:
I don’t want to start a relationship with her, because I’m going back to South Africa.
⇒ relationship between:
Relationships between people of different cultures are often extremely difficult.
⇒ be in a relationship:
Why are all the interesting men I meet already in relationships?
⇒ sexual relationship:
Several of the psychiatrists admitted to having sexual relationships with patients.
⇒ romantic relationship:
Even at 35, Bobby seemed unable to commit to a romantic relationship.
affair a secret sexual relationship between two people, when one or both of them is married to someone else:
The affair had been going on for years before her husband found out.
⇒ affair with:
I had no idea that Mike had an affair with Carolyn!
⇒ love affair:
Burton had been involved in a love affair with a woman who ended up taking most of his money.
fling a short and not very serious relationship:
Yes, I did go out with him, but it was just a fling.
She wasn’t interested in anything more than a casual fling.
⇒ fling with:
She left her husband after she learned about his fling with an exotic dancer.
⇒ have a fling:
They had a fling years ago.
romance an exciting and often short relationship between two people who feel very much in love with each other:
It was a beautiful summer romance, but they knew it couldn’t last.
Richard and Penny had made no great secret of their romance, even though they were both married.
⇒ romance with:
My romance with Lois did not survive our high school graduation.
be in a relationship
Valerie and I have been in a relationship for five years.
end/break off a relationship
She was very upset when I ended the relationship.
start/begin a relationship
She is in no hurry to start another relationship.
a sexual relationship
He admitted having a sexual relationship with a patient.
a serious/steady relationship (=one that lasts quite a long time)
It was his first serious relationship.
a long-term relationship
I have a seven-year-old daughter from a previous long-term relationship.
an on-off relationship (=happening sometimes and not at other times)
Their on-off relationship seemed to have come to an end two years ago.
a stormy/turbulent relationship (=one that involves many arguments)
It had been a stormy relationship and there were frequent drunken rows.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

throw to make something such as a ball or stone move quickly through the air using your hand:
I threw the ball back to him.
Protestors began throwing stones at the police.
I just threw the letter in the bin.
toss (also chuck) informal to throw something, especially in a careless way without using much effort:
She tossed her coat onto the bed.
Can you chuck me the remote control?
hurl to throw something with a lot of force:
Someone hurled a brick through his window.
fling to angrily throw something somewhere with a lot of force, or to carelessly throw something somewhere because you have very little time:
He flung her keys into the river.
I flung a few things into a suitcase.
heave /hiːv/ to throw something heavy using a lot of effort:
They heaved the log into the river.
lob to throw something high into the air over someone or something:
The police lobbed tear gas canisters over the heads of the demonstrators.
relationship when two people spend time together or live together because they are romantically or sexually attracted to each other:
After her marriage broke up, she had a series of disastrous relationships.
⇒ relationship with:
I don’t want to start a relationship with her, because I’m going back to South Africa.
⇒ relationship between:
Relationships between people of different cultures are often extremely difficult.
⇒ be in a relationship:
Why are all the interesting men I meet already in relationships?
⇒ sexual relationship:
Several of the psychiatrists admitted to having sexual relationships with patients.
⇒ romantic relationship:
Even at 35, Bobby seemed unable to commit to a romantic relationship.
affair a secret sexual relationship between two people, when one or both of them is married to someone else:
The affair had been going on for years before her husband found out.
⇒ affair with:
I had no idea that Mike had an affair with Carolyn!
⇒ love affair:
Burton had been involved in a love affair with a woman who ended up taking most of his money.
romance an exciting and often short relationship between two people who feel very much in love with each other:
It was a beautiful summer romance, but they knew it couldn’t last.
Richard and Penny had made no great secret of their romance, even though they were both married.
⇒ romance with:
My romance with Lois did not survive our high school graduation.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲