Affinity

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈfɪnɪti/

Origin

From Old French affinité.

Noun

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 such relationship. Affinal kinsman or kinswoman.
4. The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
• 1997, Chris Horrocks

• 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.
1. Any romantic relationship.
2. Any passionate love for something.
3. (taxonomy) resemblances between biological populations; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin, type or stock.
4. (geology) structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
5. (chemistry) An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds
6. (medicine) The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
7. (computing) tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses
8. (geometry) An automorphism of affine space.

Derived terms