Lexic.us

Definition of Affinity

1. Noun. (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody.

2. Noun. (anthropology) kinship by marriage or adoption; not a blood relationship.

3. Noun. (biology) state of relationship between organisms or groups of organisms resulting in resemblance in structure or structural parts. "In anatomical structure prehistoric man shows close affinity with modern humans"

4. Noun. A close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character. "Anthropology's kinship with the humanities"

5. Noun. The force attracting atoms to each other and binding them together in a molecule. "Basic dyes have an affinity for wool and silk"

6. Noun. Inherent resemblance between persons or things.

7. Noun. A natural attraction or feeling of kinship. "James's affinity with Sam"

Definition of Affinity

1. n. Relationship by marriage (as between a husband and his wife's blood relations, or between a wife and her husband's blood relations); -- in contradistinction to consanguinity, or relationship by blood; -- followed by with, to, or between.

Definition of Affinity

1. Noun. A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing. ¹

2. Noun. A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity. (e.g. sister). ¹

3. Noun. A kinsman or kinswoman of such relationship. Affinal kinsman or kinswoman. ¹

4. Noun. The fact of and manner in which something is related to another. ¹

5. Noun. Any romantic relationship. ¹

6. Noun. Any passionate love for something. ¹

7. Noun. (taxonomy) resemblances between biological populations; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin, type or stock. ¹

8. Noun. (geology) structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type. ¹

9. Noun. (chemistry) An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds ¹

10. Noun. (medicine) The attraction between an antibody and an antigen ¹

11. Noun. (computing) tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Affinity

1. a natural attraction or inclination [n -TIES]

Medical Definition of Affinity

1. 1. An inherent likeness or relationship. 2. A special attraction for a specific element, organ or structure. 3. The force that binds atoms in molecules, the tendency of substances to combine by chemical reaction. 4. The strength of noncovalent chemical binding between two substances as measured by the dissociation constant of the complex. 5. A thermodynamic expression of the strength of interaction between a single antigen binding site and a single antigenic determinant (and thus of the stereochemical compatibility between them), most accurately applied to interactions among simple, uniform antigenic determinants such as haptens. Expressed as the association constant (K litres mole 1), which, owing to the heterogeneity of affinities in a population of antibody molecules of a given specificity, actually represents an average value (mean intrinsic association constant). 6. The reciprocal of the dissociation constant. Origin: L. Affinitas = relationship (06 Oct 1997)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Affinity

affine group affine groups affine space affine spaces affine transformation affine transformations affined affinely affines affineur

affineurs affining affinitative affinities affinitive affinity (current term) affinity adsorbent affinity antibody affinity chromatography affinity column

affinity fraud affinity labeling affinity labels affinity reagent affinity reagents affinity tag affinization affinized affinor affinors

Literary usage of Affinity

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A System of Physical Chemistry by William Cudmore McCullagh Lewis, James Rice (1920)
"CHEMICAL affinity. WE now pass on to the question of chemical affinity and its ... The conception of some kind of attractive force or affinity between ..."

2. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1910)
"affinity, marriage with a stepmother, the wife of a paternal uncle, a daughter-in-law, ... According to Roman law, affinity was an absolute impediment. ..."

3. Pneumonia: Its Supposed Connection, Pathological and Etiological, with by René La Roche (1854)
"On the other hand, the febrile poison manifests an affinity for the • abdominal viscera, which are affected to a greater or less extent in the large ..."

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