Love | Definition of Love by Merriam-Webster SINCE 1828 GAMES BROWSE THESAURUS WORD OF THE DAY WORDS AT PLAY LOG IN REGISTER settings SAVED WORDS dictionary thesaurus view recents Login or Register Hello, GAMES BROWSE THESAURUS WORD OF THE DAY WORDS AT PLAY SETTINGS SAVED WORDS view recents love noun Save Word \ ˈləv \ Definition of love  (Entry 1 of 2) 1a(1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal love for a child (2) : attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers After all these years, they are still very much in love. (3) : affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests love for his old schoolmates b : an assurance of affection give her my love 2 : warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion love of the sea 3a : the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration baseball was his first love b(1) : a beloved person : darling —often used as a term of endearment (2) British —used as an informal term of address 4a : unselfish loyal and benevolent (see benevolent sense 1a) concern for the good of another: such as (1) : the fatherly concern of God for humankind (2) : brotherly concern for others b : a person's adoration of God 5 : a god (such as Cupid or Eros) or personification of love 6 : an amorous episode : love affair 7 : the sexual embrace : copulation 8 : a score of zero (as in tennis) 9 capitalized, Christian Science : god at love : holding one's opponent scoreless in tennis in love : inspired by affection love verb \ ˈləv \ loved; loving Definition of love (Entry 2 of 2) transitive verb 1 : to hold dear : cherish 2a : to feel a lover's passion, devotion, or tenderness for b(1) : caress (2) : to fondle amorously (3) : to copulate with 3 : to like or desire actively : take pleasure in loved to play the violin 4 : to thrive in the rose loves sunlight intransitive verb : to feel affection or experience desire Other Words from love Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about love Keep scrolling for more Synonyms & Antonyms for love Synonyms: Noun affection, attachment, devotedness, devotion, fondness, passion Synonyms: Verb appreciate, cherish, prize, treasure, value Antonyms: Noun abomination, hate, hatred, loathing, rancor Antonyms: Verb disvalue Visit the Thesaurus for More  Examples of love in a Sentence Noun Mr. Brown seems to imply that when he retired he relinquished her love as casually as he dispensed with her secretarial services. — Ken Follett, New York Times Book Review, 27 Dec. 1987 … Eddie sees Vince's pure love of pool, and after years of thinking of the game as merely a hustle, the older man suddenly falls back in love with the game himself. — Maureen Dowd, New York Times Magazine, 28 Sept. 1986 Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so appealingly, and with such measureless love in her words and her old trembling voice, that he was weltering in tears again, long before she was through. — Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, 1876 Allworthy thus answered: " … I have always thought love the only foundation of happiness in a married state, as it can only produce that high and tender friendship which should always be the cement of this union … " — Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, 1749 Children need unconditional love from their parents. He was just a lonely man looking for love. Verb People loved him for his brashness and talent, his crazy manglings of the English language, his brawling, boyish antics … and I loved him, too, I loved him as much as anyone in the world. — Paul Auster, Granta, Winter 1994 Lying awake, listening to the sound of his father's breathing, he knew there was no one in the world he loved so much. — William Maxwell, New Yorker, 15 May 1989 I love either rushing off into abstractions, or shamelessly talking personalities. — Elizabeth Bowen, letter, 28 Apr. 1923 "Nay," said Elizabeth, "this is not fair. You wish to think all the world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of any body. I only want to think you perfect, and you set yourself against it. Do not be afraid of my running into any excess, of my encroaching on your privilege of universal good will. You need not. There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well." — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813 She obviously loves her family very much. You have to love in order to be loved. He swore that he loved her madly. She said she could never marry a man she didn't love. See More Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The stories of chivalry, love, compassion, resilience and determination are remarkable. — Star Tribune, "Quarantine Read: Readers recommend 'Don Quixote'," 11 Dec. 2020 The film celebrates the power of love, family and imagination and features a talented cast of Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Madalen Mills, Phylicia Rashad, and Ricky Martin. — Keyaira Boone, Essence, "Can't Get Even Enough Of 'Jingle Jangle'? The Paley Center Is Taking You Behind-The-Scenes," 10 Dec. 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo wins this year’s Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction with a powerful novel-in-verse about love, loss, and family. — Sydney Williams, NBC News, "Best books 2020: Winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards," 9 Dec. 2020 The neighbor who gave our son lifesaving CPR; the elderly man around the block who reminds me of my late father; close friends who have shown our boys, by example, a love of helping others. — Amy Paturel, M.s., Good Housekeeping, "I Skipped the Santa Claus Tradition With My Three Sons, and They Still Have Christmas Spirit," 8 Dec. 2020 Since then, poets and writers have used it as an allegory for love, duty, conflict and accomplishment. — Jenny Adams, The Conversation, "In ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ and beyond, chess holds up a mirror to life," 8 Dec. 2020 But even with that difference, there is a commonality -- that of love, acceptance, joy, generosity, and family. — Stephen Daw, Billboard, "Happy Holi-Gays: How Queer Holiday Music Hit the Mainstream in 2020," 4 Dec. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Any true music lover would love the chance to support local institutions in this trying year. — Jon Bream, Star Tribune, "15 holiday gifts for music lovers: Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan and more," 29 Nov. 2020 The TrapKing would love to see the rescue community find ways to put aside any differences and work together toward the common goal of saving the lives of pets. — NBC News, "How this rapper quit his music career to start a cat rescue," 29 Nov. 2020 Still, the Chargers would love to establish some sense of a running game to maintain offensive balance. — Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, "Chargers vs. Bills matchups: Running game has a chance to get going," 29 Nov. 2020 So only 52 teams are going to be left out and apparently there are several mid-tiered bowls who would love to have the Razorbacks. — Wally Hall, Arkansas Online, "OPINION | WALLY HALL: Hogs' bowl chances look promising," 28 Nov. 2020 The casino hotels undoubtedly would love to have more people like Candy and Doran Jones to visit. — Randy Diamond, ExpressNews.com, "Leaving Las Vegas — to its own devices; this holiday season, many tourists are avoiding Sin City," 27 Nov. 2020 Notre Dame would love to control the ball on offense and keep star North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell off the field. — Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, "Auburn can upset Alabama with or without Nick Saban," 26 Nov. 2020 Any Apple fan on your list would love a set of AirPods. — Jennifer Manfrin, chicagotribune.com, "Best early Black Friday deals," 26 Nov. 2020 Obviously, the 7-3 Buccaneers would love to make a statement against the defending Super Bowl champions at the site of the big game scheduled for February 7. — Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, "Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers picks, predictions: Who wins Week 12 NFL game?," 24 Nov. 2020 These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'love.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback. See More First Known Use of love Noun before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1) Verb before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1 History and Etymology for love Noun and Verb Middle English, from Old English lufu; akin to Old High German luba love, Old English lēof dear, Latin lubēre, libēre to please Keep scrolling for more Learn More about love Share love Post the Definition of love to Facebook Share the Definition of love on Twitter Time Traveler for love The first known use of love was before the 12th century See more words from the same century From the Editors at Merriam-Webster Why 'Love' Means "Nothing" Why 'Love' Means "Nothing" It's just the beginning. Keep scoring points. Love Poems for Word Nerds Love Poems for Word Nerds For you, from us. 12 Words and Phrases for Romantic... 12 Words and Phrases for Romantic Relationships You'll fall head over heels Dictionary Entries near love lovage oil lovastatin lovat love love's test love affair love apple See More Nearby Entries  Phrases Related to love I must love you and leave you all's fair in love and war be in love fall in love fall out of love first love for love nor money Statistics for love Last Updated 14 Dec 2020 Look-up Popularity Cite this Entry “Love.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. MLA Chicago APA Merriam-Webster Keep scrolling for more More Definitions for love love noun English Language Learners Definition of love  (Entry 1 of 2) : a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person : attraction that includes sexual desire : the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship : a person you love in a romantic way love verb English Language Learners Definition of love (Entry 2 of 2) : to feel great affection for (someone) : to feel love for (someone) : to feel sexual or romantic love for (someone) : to like or desire (something) very much : to take great pleasure in (something) See the full definition for love in the English Language Learners Dictionary love noun \ ˈləv \ Kids Definition of love  (Entry 1 of 2) 1 : strong and warm affection (as of a parent for a child) 2 : a great liking a love for reading 3 : a beloved person love verb loved; loving Kids Definition of love (Entry 2 of 2) 1 : to feel strong affection for He loves his family. 2 : to like very much She loves to ski. Other Words from love lover noun Keep scrolling for more More from Merriam-Webster on love Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for love Nglish: Translation of love for Spanish Speakers Britannica English: Translation of love for Arabic Speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about love Comments on love What made you want to look up love? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). Show Comments  Hide Comments  WORD OF THE DAY homage See Definitions and Examples » Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary Words of the Year Quiz - 2020 Edition Which of the following words shares a root with pandemic? demote demonology democracy pan Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? TAKE THE QUIZ Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. TAKE THE QUIZ Love words? Need even more definitions? Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! 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