affair
Pluralaffairs
- 1A matter to be attended to or carried out; business of any kind, whether commercial, professional, or public.
She managed the financial affairs of the estate with great care.
Running a household of twelve was no small affair.
UsageThat is my affair means it is my business, not yours. Common set phrases: current affairs, foreign affairs, state of affairs.
Note
The French behind the word is still audible here: Old French afaire joined a- to faire, "to do", so an affair was first simply a thing to be done.
- 2A romantic or sexual relationship, typically a secret one, in which one or both people are married to or already in a relationship with someone else.
The novel traces a long affair between a diplomat and his colleague's wife.
Rumors of the senator's affair dominated the front pages for weeks.
UsageUsually have an affair with someone. A love affair can be any romantic relationship, not only a secret one.
Note
The romantic sense comes from the French affaire de cœur, 'affair of the heart'. Its usual frame is to have an affair with someone, as in Norman Lindsay's Age of Consent (1938): 'havin' an affair with Mrs. Peabody'.
- 3A proceeding or course of action that someone refers to in a general or unspecified way rather than naming it precisely.
The trial turned into a long, messy affair that dragged on for nearly two years.
Years later he still spoke of the lawsuit as that unfortunate affair.
UsageUsually with an adjective (a messy affair). With a name, it can identify a notable event or scandal (the Dreyfus affair); with of, its kind (an affair of honor).
Similarevent, incident, occurrence, episode, happening
Note
A loose word for an episode the speaker does not name precisely. Joined to a name, it labels a notorious event: Arthur T. Downey's The Creole Affair (2014) uses it for a slave revolt.
- 4A party or social gathering, especially one of a formal kind.
The charity gala was a black-tie affair held in the old opera house.
What started as a small affair grew into a reception for three hundred.
UsageUsually with an adjective that sets the tone: a black-tie affair, a quiet affair, a family affair.
- 5A material object referred to vaguely rather than named precisely.
Her hat was an enormous affair trimmed with feathers and ribbon.
The bridge was a rickety affair of rope and weathered planks.
UsageUsually with an adjective or an of phrase that does the describing: a rickety affair, an affair of wires and gears.
Similarthing, contraption
Note
This vague word comes into its own with an adjective in front of it: a ramshackle affair, a hook-shaped affair with a long handle, or Robert W. Chambers's 'big elaborate limestone affair' in The Younger Set (1907). Joseph Conrad's 'The Heart of Darkness' (1899) gives a woman 'a starched white affair on her head'. The noun does not identify the particular kind of object, so adjectives and other descriptive phrases supply the detail.
Less common meanings
- 6The person with whom someone carries on an adulterous relationship.
He met his affair in secret at a hotel across the city.
The diary named her affair only by a single initial.
UsageUsually with a possessive (my affair), which can also mean the relationship. The verb tells them apart: you have an affair but see your affair.
Note
Here the relationship has turned into the person: 'he was her affair', 'I still continue to see my affair'. It grows out of the secret relationship and usually comes with a possessive such as my or his. The verb tells the two apart: you have an affair, but you see or meet your affair.
- 7A military action or engagement too small in scale to be called a battle.
The cavalry affair at the crossing delayed the enemy advance by a day.
What began as a minor affair on the flank escalated into a prolonged campaign.
Similarskirmish, engagement, action, clash
Note
Military usage turns the word's vagueness into a measure of scale: an affair is a clash too small to be called a battle, such as a fight at a crossing or on a flank. Where one ends and the other begins is a judgment, not a fixed size. It reads most clearly when tied to the force or place involved, as in a cavalry affair. On its own, a reader may hear the everyday senses instead.
- 8A euphemistic or slang term for the genitals, whether male or female.
Note
This sense is a bawdy euphemism that is now rare. John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748–49) uses it for a man's genitals. It works like the vaguely named object: something too awkward to name becomes simply 'his affair'. Readers will mostly meet it in older texts. Used today, it would sound like a deliberate archaism and could easily be taken in the romantic sense.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- John Cleland wrote Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, first published in 1748–49. en.wikipedia.org
- The novel uses 'his affair' as a euphemism for a man's genitals. en.wikisource.org
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of affair apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Came into English as Middle English afere, taken from Old French afaire, a compound of a- and faire ('to do'); behind these lie Latin ad- and facere ('to do'). Related to 'fact'; compare also 'ado'.