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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Affinity \Af*fin"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Affinities}. [OF. afinit['e], F. affinit['e], L. affinites, fr. affinis. See {Affined}.]
1. Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by with, to, or between.
Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh. --1 Kings iii. 1.
2. Kinship generally; close agreement; relation; conformity; resemblance; connection; as, the affinity of sounds, of colors, or of languages.
There is a close affinity between imposture and credulity. --Sir G. C. Lewis.
2. Companionship; acquaintance. [Obs.]
About forty years past, I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer. --Burton.
4. (Chem.) That attraction which takes place, at an insensible distance, between the heterogeneous particles of bodies, and unites them to form chemical compounds; chemism; chemical or elective affinity or attraction.
5. (Nat. Hist.) A relation between species or higher groups dependent on resemblance in the whole plan of structure, and indicating community of origin.
6. (Spiritualism) A superior spiritual relationship or attraction held to exist sometimes between persons, esp. persons of the opposite sex; also, the man or woman who exerts such psychical or spiritual attraction.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Attraction \At*trac"tion\, noun [L. attractio: cf. F. attraction.]
1. (Physics) An invisible power in a body by which it draws anything to itself; the power in nature acting mutually between bodies or ultimate particles, tending to draw them together, or to produce their cohesion or combination, and conversely resisting separation.
Note: Attraction is exerted at both sensible and insensible distances, and is variously denominated according to its qualities or phenomena. Under attraction at sensible distances, there are, -- (1.)
{Attraction of gravitation}, which acts at all distances throughout the universe, with a force proportional directly to the product of the masses of the bodies and inversely to the square of their distances apart. (2.)
{Magnetic}, {diamagnetic}, and {electrical attraction}, each of which is limited in its sensible range and is polar in its action, a property dependent on the quality or condition of matter, and not on its quantity. Under attraction at insensible distances, there are, -- (1.)
{Adhesive attraction}, attraction between surfaces of sensible extent, or by the medium of an intervening substance. (2.)
{Cohesive attraction}, attraction between ultimate particles, whether like or unlike, and causing simply an aggregation or a union of those particles, as in the absorption of gases by charcoal, or of oxygen by spongy platinum, or the process of solidification or crystallization. The power in adhesive attraction is strictly the same as that of cohesion. (3.)
{Capillary attraction}, attraction causing a liquid to rise, in capillary tubes or interstices, above its level outside, as in very small glass tubes, or a sponge, or any porous substance, when one end is inserted in the liquid. It is a special case of cohesive attraction. (4.)
{Chemical attraction}, or
{affinity}, that peculiar force which causes elementary atoms, or groups of atoms, to unite to form molecules.
2. The act or property of attracting; the effect of the power or operation of attraction. --Newton.
3. The power or act of alluring, drawing to, inviting, or engaging; an attractive quality; as, the attraction of beauty or eloquence.
4. That which attracts; an attractive object or feature.
Syn: Allurement; enticement; charm.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
affinity
noun
1: the force attracting atoms to each other and binding them together in a molecule; "basic dyes have an affinity for wool and silk" [syn: {chemical attraction}]
2: (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody
3: kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship [syn: {kinship by marriage}] [ant: {consanguinity}]
4: (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" [syn: {phylogenetic relation}]
5: a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character; "found a natural affinity with the immigrants"; "felt a deep kinship with the other students"; "anthropology's kinship with the humanities" [syn: {kinship}]
6: inherent resemblance between persons or things
7: a natural attraction or feeling of kinship; "an affinity for politics"; "the mysterious affinity between them"; "James's affinity with Sam"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
212 Moby Thesaurus words for "affinity": a thing for, accord, accordance, addition, adduction, adjunct, affairs, affiliation, agape, agreement, alikeness, alliance, allurement, amity, analogy, approximation, aptitude, aptness, assemblage, assent, association, attractance, attraction, attractiveness, attractivity, bag, bent, bias, bond, bonds of harmony, brotherly love, capillarity, capillary attraction, caritas, cast, cement of friendship, centripetal force, charity, chorus, chosen kind, chumminess, closeness, coherence, coincidence, combination, communion, community, community of interests, comparison, compatibility, conatus, concert, concord, concordance, conduciveness, conformance, conformation, conformity, congeneracy, congeniality, congruence, congruency, congruity, connateness, connaturality, connaturalness, connature, connectedness, connection, consistency, consonance, consort, contiguity, contrariety, cooperation, correspondence, cup of tea, dealings, deduction, delight, diathesis, disjunction, disposition, drag, draw, druthers, eagerness, empathy, equivalence, esprit, esprit de corps, familiarity, family connection, family favor, family likeness, fancy, fascination, favor, feeling for, feeling of identity, fellow feeling, fellowship, filiation, fondness, frictionlessness, friendliness, generic resemblance, good vibes, good vibrations, gravitation, gravity, happy family, harmony, homology, identity, inclination, inseparableness, intercourse, intersection, intimacy, intimate acquaintance, junction, kinship, leaning, liability, liaison, like-mindedness, liking, link, linkage, linking, love, magnetism, marital affinity, marriage connection, marriage relationship, mateyness, mutual affinity, mutual attraction, mutuality, nearness, oneness, overlap, palliness, parallelism, partiality, particular choice, peace, penchant, personal choice, predilection, predisposition, preference, prejudice, prepossession, probability, proclivity, proneness, propensity, propinquity, proximity, pull, pulling power, rapport, rapprochement, readiness, reciprocity, relatedness, relation, relations, relationship, resemblance, self-consistency, semblance, sensitivity to, sharing, similarity, simile, similitude, soft spot, solidarity, special affinity, style, susceptibility, symmetry, sympathy, symphony, sync, synchronism, tally, taste, team spirit, tendency, thing, tie, tie-in, timing, traction, tropism, tug, turn, twist, type, understanding, uniformity, union, unison, unisonance, unity, warp, weakness, willingness
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Affinity relationship by alliance (2 Chr. 18:1) or by marriage (1 Kings 3:1). Marriages are prohibited within certain degrees of affinity, enumerated Lev. 18:6-17. Consanguinity is relationship by blood.
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