affinity
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈfɪnɪti/
Forms: form: affinities
Etymology: From Middle English affinite, from Old French affinité. Ostensibly equivalent to affine + -ity.
Senses: glosses: A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.
glosses: A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity (e.g. sister).
glosses: A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who is affinal.
examples: text: There are, of course, certain differences of detail; for example, the placing of the safety valves on the boiler barrel behind the dome, which follows the practice in the Riddles 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 locomotives for the Ministry of Supply; but taken all in all, Britannia's boiler has a closer affinity with the Doncaster designs than with any other.
ref: 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:
text: A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.
ref: 1997, Chris Horrocks, “Introducing Foucault”, in The Renaissance Episteme, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 67:
glosses: The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
glosses: Any romantic relationship.
examples: text: "Cut it short, sis, cut it short," he would growl at her if she started to murmur sweet "coo-coos" to her affinity stationed on the other end of the wire.
ref: 1916 August 24, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 248, column 3:
glosses: A love interest; a paramour.
glosses: Any passionate love for something.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
taxonomy
glosses: Resemblances between biological populations, suggesting that they have a common origin, type or stock.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: Structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: An automorphism of affine space.
Hyponyms: microaffinity
Derived terms: sense: Compound words
word: bioaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: chemoaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: equiaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: hydroaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: immunoaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: lipoaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: metalloaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: microaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: nonaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: photoaffinity
sense: Compound words
word: self-affinity
sense: Compound words
word: socioaffinity
sense: Expressions
word: affinity card
sense: Expressions
word: affinity fraud
sense: Expressions
word: affinity group
sense: Expressions
word: affinity reagent
sense: Expressions
word: chemical affinity
sense: Expressions
word: elective affinity
sense: Expressions
word: electron affinity