romance
Pluralromances
Verbromances, romancing, romanced
Pluralromances
Formsromances, romancing, romanced
- 1A love affair; an intimate attachment between two people.
Their summer romance ended when she went back to college in September.
After the divorce, he told friends he wasn't ready for a new romance.
UsageA romance with someone, or between two people: her romance with a colleague.
Similaraffair, relationship, fling
- 2A story, novel, or film centered on an idealized love relationship; such stories considered together as a genre.
After two thrillers, she switched to romance and never looked back.
The festival added a romance category this year, alongside horror and science fiction.
- 3Love imagined as pure, beautiful, and ideal.
He was a cynic who thought romance existed only in songs and greeting cards.
Years of bad dates hadn't killed her belief in romance.
Similarlove
- 4A quality that makes something seem mysterious, exciting, or fascinating.
Long-distance trains still carry a romance that airports cannot match.
Part of the romance of the old lighthouse is that no one knows who built it.
UsageUsually the romance of something: the romance of the sea.
- 5Relating to the languages and cultures that grew out of Latin and Roman influence, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, and Catalan.
She chairs the department of Romance studies at a large state university.
Much of the Romance vocabulary in English came in through Norman French.
UsageWritten with a capital R: Romance languages. For love, the adjective is romantic.
- 6To pursue someone romantically in the hope of winning their love; to court.
In the film, a shy baker romances the widow who lives above his shop.
Players who romance the ship's pilot unlock an extra ending.
Note
In video games the verb has become a term of art: players romance a companion, and Meghan Blythe Adams separates characters a player can romance without reward from the game's "official" interests, which bring an achievement. Plot summaries use it in the older way, as when the gentle Barber of The Great Dictator romances a defiant washerwoman.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Meghan Blythe Adams distinguishes romance options without an achievement from 'official' interests that yield one, specifically in Mass Effect 2. loading.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org
- The barber in The Great Dictator develops a romantic relationship with Hannah, who resists persecution alongside him. en.wikipedia.org
- Hannah is a washerwoman. de.wikipedia.org
- 7The family of languages descended from Vulgar Latin, considered as a whole.
Linguists often divide Romance into eastern and western branches.
Her book traces how the Latin future tense was rebuilt across Romance.
Note
The capitalized word names the family as a single field, so a sound change or a tense can be traced across Romance. Linguists also use it to build subgroups along broad geographical lines: Italo-Romance, Gallo-Romance, Hispano-Romance.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Romance languages have geographical subgroups called Italo-Romance, Gallo-Romance and Hispano-Romance. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A story of exciting, larger-than-life adventures, especially one involving knights, heroes, and quests.
Her thesis compares two medieval romances about the knights of King Arthur.
In the romance, the hero must cross a bridge as sharp as a sword to reach the queen.
Note
The story sense comes straight from the word's origin. Old French romanz was the everyday language of France, as opposed to Latin; tales of knights and quests were told in it, so a word for a language became a word for a story. A later contrast appears in Rider Haggard's She, which sets history, the true record, against romance, the invented tale.
Less common meanings
- 9A strong attachment to, or obsession with, something or someone.
America's long romance with the automobile shaped the way its cities grew.
Her romance with Paris began on a semester abroad and never faded.
UsageUsually a romance with something: America's romance with the car.
Similarfascination, passion, infatuation
- 10An adventure or series of extraordinary events in real life, like those told in old tales of adventure.
Their grandfather's life, from stowaway to sea captain, was a romance.
The expedition became a romance of shipwreck, mutiny, and rescue that the newspapers followed for months.
- 11A tender, sentimental piece of music, also called a romanza.
The violinist closed the recital with a romance by Beethoven.
The concerto's slow movement is a romance, simple and songlike after the stormy opening.
Note
As a title it promises a mood rather than a fixed form: something lyrical and songlike, whether a short piece for violin or piano or the slow movement of a larger work. Romanza, the Italian name, and the German Romanze label the same kind of piece.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The title indicates expressive character rather than a fixed musical form. en.wikisource.org
- Romances can be lyrical, songlike instrumental pieces. en.wikipedia.org
- The title can describe a slow movement within a larger work. en.wikisource.org
- Romanza is the Italian equivalent of the musical term romance. en.wiktionary.org
- Romanze is the German equivalent of the musical term romance. en.wikisource.org
- 12An embellished account of something, or a lie that paints it in an idealized light.
His tales of the war were pure romance; he had spent most of it behind a desk in Ohio.
The company's founding story is a romance: there was no garage and no lucky break.
Similarfantasy, fiction, myth, fabrication
- 13A dreamy, imaginative habit of mind that tends to ignore what is real.
There was too much romance in him to settle for a steady office job.
One muddy winter on the farm cured her of her romance about country life.
Similaridealism
Oppositerealism, pragmatism
- 14To indulge in extravagant, imaginative talk, spinning daydreams and impractical schemes.
- 15To write or tell romantic stories, poetry, letters, and the like.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Latin rōmānus ("a Roman") gave the adjective rōmānicus ("Roman") and the Medieval and Vulgar Latin adverb rōmānicē ("in the Roman language"). In Anglo-Norman and Old French this became romanz or romans, the everyday language of France as opposed to Latin, and Middle English borrowed it as romauns or roumance. Romansch is a doublet.
From Old French romanz ("the everyday language of France"), from Late Latin rōmānicē ("in the Roman language"), from Latin rōmānicus ("Roman"). In the 17th century it was extended to all languages descended from Latin.