# affinity

> English word · Noun · IPA /əˈfɪnɪti/ · frequency rank #12,723

## Definitions
1. A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.
2. A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity (e.g. sister).
3. A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who is affinal.
4. The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
5. Any romantic relationship.
6. A love interest; a paramour.
7. Any passionate love for something.
8. Resemblances between biological populations, suggesting that they have a common origin, type or stock.
9. Structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
10. An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds.
11. The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
12. A tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses.
13. An automorphism of affine space.

## Etymology
From Middle English affinite, from Old French affinité. Ostensibly equivalent to affine + -ity.

## Common misspellings (10)
`affiinty`, `affinitty`, `affinityy`, `affiniyt`, `affinnity`, `affintiy`, `affniity`, `afifnity`, `afinity`, `fafinity`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/affinity