affairs
- 1Plural of affair.
The minister oversees foreign affairs for the entire region.
He put his financial affairs in order before retiring.
Note
The business meaning settles most naturally in the plural: one's affairs are the matters a person or an office has to manage, as in foreign affairs or putting financial affairs in order. The singular leans elsewhere, toward a vague happening, a skirmish too small to be a battle, or a romance outside one's regular partnership. The plural can still mean several such romances, so context does the sorting. Someone who settles their affairs is paying bills, not ending love stories.
affairs is a form of affair
affair, noun: A matter to be attended to or carried out; business of any kind, whether commercial, professional, or public. Full entry
- Forms
- affairaffairs plural
- Spelling
- affair → affairs: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
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