affinity

/əˈfɪnədi/

/əˈfɪnəti/

Other forms: affinities

If you get along with someone very well, you have an affinity with them. Sometimes opposites attract, so you might feel a strange affinity to someone who is seemingly very different from you.

When you are attracted to someone or something a great deal, we say that you have an affinity, a natural connection. Likewise, scientists use affinity to describe organisms that are alike or resemble each other. Interestingly, the Middle English word, affinite, originally applied to people who were connected or related by marriage, rather than by biology.

Definitions of affinity

1. noun

   a natural attraction or feeling of kinship
   “an affinity for politics”

   “the mysterious affinity between them”

   “James's affinity with Sam”

   type of:

   attraction, attractiveness

   the quality of arousing interest; being attractive or something that attracts
2. noun

   a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character
   “found a natural affinity with the immigrants”

   synonyms: kinship

   types:

   rapport, resonance

   a relationship of mutual understanding or trust and agreement between people

   sympathy

   a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other

   mutual affection, mutual understanding

   sympathy of each person for the other

   type of:

   relation

   an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together
3. noun

   (anthropology) kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship
   antonyms:

   consanguinity

   (anthropology) related by blood

   types:

   steprelationship

   a family relationship by virtue of remarriage

   type of:

   family relationship, kinship, relationship

   (anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
4. noun

   (biology) state of relationship between organisms or groups of organisms resulting in resemblance in structure or structural parts
   “in anatomical structure prehistoric man shows close affinity with modern humans”

   synonyms: phylogenetic relation

   type of:

   family relationship, kinship, relationship

   (anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
5. noun

   inherent resemblance between persons or things
   type of:

   resemblance

   similarity in appearance or external or superficial details
6. noun

   the force attracting atoms to each other and binding them together in a molecule
   “basic dyes have an affinity for wool and silk”

   synonyms: chemical attraction

   type of:

   force

   (physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity
7. noun

   (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody
   type of:

   attraction, attractive force

   the force by which one object attracts another