affinity

noun affinities

1. countable, uncountable A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.

   Similar: kindred

2. countable, uncountable A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity (e.g. sister).
3. countable, uncountable A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who is affinal.
4. countable, uncountable The fact of and manner in which something is related to another. There are, of course, certain differences of detail; for example, the placing of the safety valves on the boiler barrel behind the dome, which follows the practice in the Riddles 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 locomotives for the Ministry of Supply; but taken all in all, Britannia's boiler has a closer affinity w
5. countable, uncountable Any romantic relationship.
6. countable, uncountable A love interest; a paramour. "Cut it short, sis, cut it short," he would growl at her if she started to murmur sweet "coo-coos" to her affinity stationed on the other end of the wire.
7. countable, uncountable Any passionate love for something.
8. countable, uncountable Resemblances between biological populations, suggesting that they have a common origin, type or stock.
9. countable, uncountable Structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
10. countable, uncountable An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds.
11. countable, uncountable The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
12. countable, uncountable A tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses.
13. countable, uncountable An automorphism of affine space.