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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

affair.

Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation/əˈfɛɹ/General-American/əˈfɛɚ/General-American/əˈfeː/Australia
  1. Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.

    in-plural · often
    a difficult affair to manage
  2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely.

    an affair of honor
    an affair of love
  3. An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.

  4. A material object (vaguely designated).

    He used a hook-shaped affair with a long handle to unlock the car.
    This garden is a ramshackle affair.
  5. An adulterous relationship, chiefly of a married person. (from affaire de cœur, affair of the heart).

    When Martin's wife found out about his affair with her best friend, she asked for a divorce.
    Mary had an affair with a woman from the gym.
  6. An otherwise illicit romantic relationship, such as with someone who is not one's regular partner (boyfriend, girlfriend).

    Jerry's girlfriend said she wanted to go steady, but she was in an affair with one of his team-mates.
  7. A person with whom someone has an adulterous relationship.

  8. A party or social gathering, especially of a formal nature.

  9. The (male or female) genitals.

    archaic · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Latin ad Old French a Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin facio Old French faire Old French afaireder. Middle English afere English affair From Middle English afere, affere, from Old French afaire, from a- + faire (“to do”), from Latin ad- + facere (“to do”). See fact, and compare ado.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.