love

(lʌv )
Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular present tense loves , present
participle loving , past tense, past participleloved
1. verb
If you love someone, you feel romantically or sexually attracted to them,
and they are very important to you.
Oh, Amy, I love you. [VERB noun]
We love each other. We want to spend our lives together. [VERB noun]
Synonyms: adore, care for, treasure, cherish More Synonyms of love
2. uncountable noun
Love is a very strong feeling of affection towards someone who you are
romantically or sexually attracted to.
Our love for each other has been increased by what we've been through together. [+ for]
...a old fashioned love story.
...an album of love songs.
Synonyms: passion, liking, regard, friendship More Synonyms of love
3. verb
You say that you love someone when their happiness is very important
to you, so that you behavein a kind and caring way towards them.
You'll never love anyone the way you love your baby. [VERB noun]
4. uncountable noun
Love is the feeling that a person's happiness is very important to you,
and the way you show this feeling in your behaviour towards them.
My love for all my children is unconditional. [+ for]
She's got a great capacity for love.
5. verb
If you love something, you like it very much.
We loved the food so much, especially the fish dishes. [VERB noun/verb-ing]
I loved reading. [VERB noun/verb-ing]
...one of these people that loves to be in the outdoors. [VERB to-infinitive]
I love it when I hear you laugh. [V it wh]
Synonyms: enjoy, like, desire, fancy [informal] More Synonyms of love
6. verb
You can say that you love something when you consider that it is
important and want to protect or support it.
I love my country as you love yours. [VERB noun]
7. uncountable noun
Love is a strong liking for something, or a belief that it is important.
This is no way to encourage a love of literature.
The French are known for their love of their language. [+ of]
8. countable noun [usually with poss]
Your love is someone or something that you love.
'She is the love of my life,' he said.
Music's one of my great loves.
9. verb
If you would love to have or do something, you very much want to have
it or do it.
I would love to play for England again. [VERB to-infinitive]
I would love a hot bath and clean clothes. [VERB noun]
His wife would love him to give up his job. [VERB noun to-infinitive]
10. countable noun
Some people use love as an affectionate way of addressing someone.
[British, informal, feelings]
Well, I'll take your word for it then, love.
Don't cry, my love.
Synonyms: beloved, dear, dearest, sweet More Synonyms of love
11. number
In tennis, love is a score of zero.
He beat the Austrian three sets to love.
12. convention
You can use expressions such as 'love', 'love from', and 'all my love',
followed by your name, as an informal way of ending a letter to
a friend or relation.
...with love from Grandma and Grandpa.
13. uncountable noun
If you send someone your love, you ask another person, who
will soon be speaking or writing to them, to tell them that you
are thinking about them with affection.
Please give her my love.
14. See also free love, -loved, loving, peace-loving, tug-of-love
15.
fall in love
16.
fall in love
17.
be in love
18.
be in love
19.
no love lost/little love lost
20.
make love
21.
for love or money
22.
love at first sight
23. labour of love
More Synonyms of love
COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

See related content

Synonyms of "love"
French Definition of "love"

Word lists "affection"

Translator
Hindi Definition of "love"

NEW from Collins!

Easy Learning English Grammar

Video: pronunciation of 'love'

Word Frequency
love in British
(lʌv )
verb
1. (transitive)
to have a great attachment to and affection for
2. (transitive)
to have passionate desire, longing, and feelings for
3. (transitive)
to like or desire (to do something) very much
4. (transitive)
to make love to
5. (intransitive)
to be in love
noun
6.
a.
an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a
person or thing
b.
(as modifier)
love song
love story
7.
a deep feeling of sexual attraction and desire
8.
wholehearted liking for or pleasure in something
9. Christianity
a.
God's benevolent attitude towards humankind
b.
humankind's attitude of reverent devotion towards God
10. Also: my love
a beloved person: used esp as an endearment
11. British informal
a term of address, esp but not necessarily for a person regarded
as likable
12.
(in tennis, squash, etc) a score of zero
13. fall in love
14. for love
15. for love or money
16. for the love of
17. in love
18. make love
▶ Related adjective: amatory
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Word origin of 'love'

Old English lufu; related to Old High German luba; compare also
Latin libēre (originally lubēre) to please
Word Frequency

love in American
(lʌv )
noun
1.
a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a
person or persons
2.
an expression of one's love or affection
give Mary my love
3.
a feeling of brotherhood and good will toward other people
4.
a.
strong liking for or interest in something
a love of music
b.
the object of such liking
5.
a.
a strong, usually passionate, affection of one person for another, based in
part on sexual attraction
b.
the person who is the object of such an affection; sweetheart; lover
6.
a.
sexual passion
b.
sexual intercourse
7. Tennis
a score of zero
8. Theology
a.
God's tender regard and concern for all human beings
b.
devotion to and desire for God as the supreme good, that all human
beings have
9. [L-]; Mythology
a.
Cupid, or Eros, as the god of love
b. Rare
Venus
verb transitiveWord forms: loved or ˈloving
10.
to feel love for
11.
to show love for by embracing, fondling, kissing, etc.
12.
to delight in; take pleasure in
to love books
13.
to gain benefit from
a plant that loves shade
verb intransitive
14.
to feel the emotion of love; be in love
Idioms:
fall in love (with)
for love
for the love of
in love
make love
no love lost between
not for love or money
SYNONYMY NOTE:love implies intense fondness or deep devotion and may apply to various
relationships or objects [sexual love, brotherly love, love of one's work,
etc.]; affection suggests warm, tender feelings, usually not as powerful or deep as those
implied by , love [he has no affection for children]; attachment implies connection by ties of
affection, attraction, devotion, etc. and may be felt for inanimate things as well as for
people [an attachment to an old hat]; infatuation implies a foolish or unreasoning passion
or affection, often a transient one [an elderly man's infatuation for a young girl]
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Word origin of 'love'

ME < OE lufu, akin to OHG luba, Goth lubo < IE base *leubh-, to be fond of, desire
> libido, lief, lust; (sense 7) < phr. play for love, i.e., play for nothing

Example sentences containing 'love'

These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content. Read more…
She'd have trouble raising a hundred dollars -'Rosie, please -'No, love.Jon Cleary YESTERDAY'S
SHADOW (2001)You, on the other hand, maintain the absurd belief that love is more important
than money.Lisa Scottoline LEGAL TENDER (2001)

Quotations
How do I love thee? Let me count the waysElizabeth Barrett Browning SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE
All that matters is love and workattributed to Sigmund Freud
Money was scarce but new love has no need of money. Somewhere to go, to be together is
all and we were lucky. We had that. Hell is love with no place to goDilys Rose ALL THE LITTLE LOVED
ONES
To be overtopped in anything else I can bear: but in the tests of generous love
I defy all mankindRobert Burns LETTER TO CLARINDA
Love's pleasure lasts but a moment; love's sorrow lasts all through lifeJean-Pierre Claris de
Florian CELESTINE
What love is, if thou wouldst be taught,
Thy heart must teach alone -
Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as oneFriedrich Halm DER SOHN DER WILDNIS
Love is like the measles; we all have to go through itJerome K. Jerome THE IDLE THOUGHTS OF AN IDLE
FELLOW
Love's like the measles - all the worse when it comes late in lifeDouglas Jerrold WIT AND OPINIONS OF
DOUGLAS JERROLD
No, there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dreamThomas Moore LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM
And all for love, and nothing for rewardEdmund Spenser THE FAERIE QUEENE
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at allAlfred, Lord Tennyson IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.
Love means never having to say you're sorryErich Segal LOVE STORY
In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of loveAlfred, Lord Tennyson LOCKSLEY
HALL
Love conquers all things; let us too give in to loveVirgil ECLOGUE
Love and do what you willSaint Augustine of Hippo IN EPISTOLAM JOANNIS AD PARTHOS
Those have most power to hurt us that we loveFrancis Beaumont and John Fletcher THE MAID'S
TRAGEDY
My love's a noble madnessJohn Dryden ALL FOR LOVE
And love's the noblest frailty of the mindJohn Dryden THE INDIAN EMPEROR
Love's tongue is in the eyesPhineas Fletcher PISCATORY ECLOGUES
Love is only one of many passionsSamuel Johnson PLAYS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, PREFACE
Where both deliberate, the love is slight;
Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?Christopher Marlowe HERO AND LEANDER
If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?Lily Tomlin
Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for loveWilliam
Shakespeare AS YOU LIKE IT
The course of true love never did run smoothWilliam Shakespeare A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration findsWilliam Shakespeare SONNETS
O my love's like a red, red roseRobert Burns A RED, RED ROSE
Two things a man cannot hide: that he is drunk, and that he is in loveAntiphanes
Every man is a poet when he is in lovePlato SYMPOSIUM
one that lov'd not wisely but too wellWilliam Shakespeare OTHELLO
To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible godJorge Luis Borges THE MEETING IN A DREAM
Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and
it darts awayDorothy Parker
Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same
directionAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be a secretAphra Behn THE LOVER'S WATCH, FOUR
O'CLOCK
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown itBIBLE: SONG OF SOLOMON
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friendsBIBLE: ST. JOHN
O lyric Love, half-angel and half-bird
And all a wonder and a wild desireRobert Browning THE RING AND THE BOOK
Whoever loves, if he do not propose
The right true end of love, he's one that goes
To sea for nothing but to make him sickJohn Donne LOVE'S PROGRESS
I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetryJohn Donne THE TRIPLE FOOL
How alike are the groans of love to those of the dyingMalcolm Lowry UNDER THE VOLCANO
After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Now that love has perished?Edna St. Vincent Millay PASSER MORTUUS EST
If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: `Because
it was he; because it was me.'Montaigne ESSAIS
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, diesJohn Donne THE ANAGRAM
Love thy neighbour as thyselfBIBLE: LEVITICUS
All's fair in love and war
Love is blind
One cannot love and be wise
Love makes the world go round
Love will find a way

Word Lists
affection, tennis

More idioms containing 'love'

someone would love to be a fly on the wall
cupboard love
a labour of love
all's fair in love and war
for love nor money
no love lost

COBUILD Collocations
abiding love
absolutely love
brotherly love
divine love
doomed love
express love
find love
forbidden love
lasting love
lifelong love of
profound love of
real love
sacrificial love
share a love of
tender love
unconditional love
undying love
unrequited love