love

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A deep caring for the existence of another.
  2. Strong affection.
  3. A profound and caring affection towards someone.
  4. Affectionate, benevolent concern or care for other people or beings, and for their well-being.
  5. A feeling of intense attraction towards someone.
  6. A deep or abiding liking for something; an enthusiasm for something.
  7. A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.
  8. A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.
  9. A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm.
  10. Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.
  11. Sexual activity.
  12. An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.
verb
  1. To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
  2. To need, thrive on.
  3. To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.
  4. To seek the good or honor of (someone), care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
  5. To derive delight from a fact or situation.
  6. Synonym of heart (verb).
  7. To have sex with (perhaps from make love).
noun
  1. Zero, no score.
  2. Nothing; no recompense.
verb
  1. Alternative form of lofe (“to praise, sell”).
noun
  1. radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter L.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A male given name.
  3. A female given name.
  4. Cupid, Eros, or another personification of love.
  5. An unincorporated community in Butler County, Kentucky.
name
  1. The ship of characters Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars from the television show Veronica Mars.

Pronunciation

/ˈlʌv/ [ˈlʌv] En-uk-love.ogg En-us-love.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-love.wav /ˈläv/ [ˈlä̝v] /ˈlɐv/ [ˈlɐ̝v] /ˈləʋ/ [ˈləʋ] /ˈlʊv/ [ˈlʊv]

Word forms

love loves loue luv loving loved no-table-tags glossary lovest lovedst loveth

Etymology

From Middle English love, luve, from Old English lufu, from Proto-West Germanic *lubu, from Proto-Germanic *lubō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“love, care, desire”). The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from Middle English loven, luvien, from Old English lufian (“to love”), from Proto-West Germanic *lubōn (“to love”), derived from the noun. Eclipsed non-native English amour (“love”), borrowed from Norman amour (“love”). Cognates Cognate with Scots luve (“love”), Saterland Frisian ljo, ljoo, ljoof (“dear, sweet”), Ljoote, Ljoowe (“love”), West Frisian leaf (“friendly, kind, cordial”), leafde (“love”), Dutch lief (“lovely, nice, sweet”), liefde (“love”), German lieb (“dear; lovable”), Liebe (“love”), German Low German Leevde, Lieve (“love”), Luxembourgish léif (“lovely, kind, nice, sweet”), Léift (“love”), Vilamovian łiwa (“love”), Yiddish ליב (lib, “nice; kind”), Icelandic ljúfur (“beloved, dear”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish ljuv (“lovely, sweet”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍆𐍃 (liufs, “beloved, dear”), Albanian lyp (“to beg”), Russian любовь (ljubovʹ, “love”), Lithuanian liaupsė (“praise”), Latin libido (“desire, lust”), Polish lubić (“to like”), Persian آلفتن (âloftan, “to enamor”), Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”).

Related words

Translations

Afrikaans: liefde Ahom: 𑜍𑜀𑜫 Albanian: dashuri Southern Altai: сӱӱш Southern Altai: сӱӱм Amharic: ፍቅር Amharic: መውደድ Arabic: حُبّ Arabic: مَحَبَّة Arabic: عِشْق Arabic: حب Arabic: محبة Arabic: غرام Sudanese Arabic: ريدة Sudanese Arabic: حب Aragonese: aimor Aramaic: ܚܘܒܐ Armenian: սեր Aromanian: vreari Aromanian: vreare Aromanian: agapi Aromanian: sivdã Assamese: মৰম Assamese: চেনেহ Asturian: amor Aymara: amawaña Azerbaijani: sevgi Azerbaijani: eşq Azerbaijani: məhəbbət Bala: 孩拉米 Balinese: tresna Bangi: bolingo Bashkir: мөхәббәт Bashkir: һөйөү Basque: amodio Basque: maitasun Belarusian: любо́ў Belarusian: каха́нне Bengali: মহব্বত Bengali: ভালোবাসা Central Bikol: pagkamoot Breton: karantez Bulgarian: любо́в Bulgarian: о́бич Burmese: အချစ် Burmese: မေတ္တာ Buryat: дуран Carpathian Rusyn: любо́в Carpathian Rusyn: ла́ска Catalan: amor Cebuano: gugma Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵢⵔⵉ Cherokee: ᏥᎨᏳᎢ Chinese Cantonese: 愛 /爱 Chinese Cantonese: 愛情 /爱情 Chinese: нэ Chinese: 愛情 /爱情 Chinese: 情愛 /情爱 Chinese: 愛 /爱 Eastern Min Chinese: 愛 /爱 Eastern Min Chinese: 愛情 /爱情 Gan Chinese: 愛 /爱 Hakka Chinese: 愛 /爱 Jin Chinese: 愛 /爱 Chinese Mandarin: 愛 /爱 Chinese Mandarin: 愛情 /爱情 Northern Min Chinese: 愛 /爱
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