The Meaning of Love: What It Is and How To Use It

Love is a comprehensive term, but what is the meaning of love? This article will define love and provide related information about love.

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Have you ever been in love? Have you ever told someone that you love them? 

This article will provide you with various definitions of love and teach you how to use them in a sentence. Then, it will talk about the origin of the word love and provide other useful information about the word love.

What Does the Word Love Mean?

According to Dictionary, love can be used as both a noun and a verb. As a noun, love means a strong affection or strong liking. Love can also refer to sexual love, which encompasses sexual attraction, infatuation, and romantic love. Love is pronounced lʌv.

Love can also be a verb and mean to have affection for another person. Love can either be a transitive verb or an intransitive verb. 

Love is also used in the phrase make love, which means to have sexual intercourse.

What Is The Etymology of Love?

The word love emerged in Middle English before the year 900 CE. This word comes from the Old English lufu and Old English lufian. This Old English term is a cognate with the Old High German luba/Old High German lubōn, Old Frisian luve/Old Frisian luvia, and the Gothic lubō. These come from the Latin lubēre, libēre, and leif.

What Are Examples of Love in a Sentence?

Love is a very common word that people can use in various ways. As you look at the below example sentences that contain the word love, see if you can determine if it is a noun or a verb, and which definition of love is being used. Then, tell someone you love them today!

After years of experiencing unrequited love, he was finally in a relationship for the first time. He was so excited to show his newfound love how much he cared for him.

While she was happy with her current relationship, she would always think of her first love as the great love affair of her life.

The love story told the tale of two human beings separated from each other by land, religion, and family. Yet, they were determined to find a way for their love to work.

Under Cupid’s influence, the two decided to make love on Valentine’s Day.

His love of God made a life in the priesthood fulfilling and satisfying for him.

She wondered if people could really find true love at first sight or if that was something that people reserved for the movies.

They showed their brotherly love by holding a fundraiser for one of their friends who was down on his luck.

The love song she wrote did not talk about love in a traditional sense, but the type of love you feel for a community.

What Are Translations of Love?

Love is a beautiful thing that you can discuss with people all over the world. To learn how to say the word love in languages, look at this list of translations of love from Nice Translator. Then, you can show how much you love people around the world!

  • Telugu: ప్రేమ
  • Arabic: الحب
  • Bengali: ভালবাসা
  • Croatian: ljubav
  • German: Liebe
  • Portuguese (Brazil): amar
  • Estonian: armastus
  • Greek: αγάπη
  • Hebrew: אהבה
  • Tamil: காதல்
  • Portuguese (Portugal): amar
  • Russian: любовь
  • Welsh: garwyd
  • Urdu: محبت
  • Ukrainian: любов
  • Marathi: प्रेम
  • Spanish: amor
  • Danish: kærlighed
  • Icelandic: ást
  • Latvian: mīlestība
  • Korean: 사랑
  • Turkish: Aşk
  • Slovak: láska
  • Catalan: amor
  • Filipino: Pag-ibig
  • Vietnamese: yêu và quý
  • Bulgarian: любов
  • Japanese: 愛
  • Kannada: ಪ್ರೀತಿ
  • Lithuanian: meilė
  • Basque: maite izan
  • Czech: milovat
  • Swedish: kärlek
  • Slovenian: ljubezen
  • Norwegian: kjærlighet
  • Chinese (PRC): 爱
  • Romanian: dragoste
  • Chinese (Taiwan): 愛
  • Hindi: प्यार
  • Indonesian: cinta
  • Swahili: Upendo
  • Malay: suka
  • Finnish: rakkaus
  • Hungarian: szerelem
  • Italian: amore
  • Amharic: ፍቅር
  • Serbian: љубав
  • French: amour
  • Malayalam: സ്നേഹിക്കുക
  • Gujarati: પ્રેમ
  • Dutch: Liefde
  • Polish: miłość
  • Thai: รัก

What Are Synonyms of the Word Love?

The word love is a fairly broad term. There are many more specific ways that you can refer to the type of love you feel for another person. 

To learn about the different ways to say love, reference this list of synonyms of love from Power Thesaurus

  • admire
  • adoration
  • adore
  • affair
  • affection
  • amour
  • appreciate
  • attachment
  • babe
  • bang
  • be crazy about
  • be fond of
  • be intimate
  • beloved
  • bonk
  • boyfriend
  • care
  • cherish
  • crush
  • darling
  • dear
  • dearest
  • delight
  • delight in
  • desire
  • devotion
  • endearment
  • enjoy
  • fancy
  • fondness
  • friendship
  • hold dear
  • honey
  • idolize
  • infatuation
  • kindness
  • know
  • like
  • liking
  • love affair
  • loved one
  • lovemaking
  • lover
  • make love
  • paramour
  • partiality
  • passion
  • penchant
  • praise
  • predilection
  • regard
  • regards
  • relationship
  • relish
  • respect
  • romance
  • screw
  • sweet
  • sweetheart
  • sweetie
  • sympathy
  • taste
  • tenderness
  • treasure
  • want
  • warmth
  • worship

What Are Antonyms of the Word Love?

Do you ever feel the opposite of love for someone? If you do, you can use this list of antonyms of the word love from Power Thesaurus to describe how you feel. 

  • abhor
  • abhorrence
  • abominate
  • abomination
  • abstain
  • acrimony
  • allergy
  • animosity
  • animus
  • antagonism
  • antipathy
  • apathy
  • aversion
  • bad blood
  • bad feeling
  • bitterness
  • cold-heartedness
  • conflict
  • contempt
  • contrariety
  • coolness
  • criticize
  • despise
  • detest
  • detestation
  • disdain
  • disfavor
  • disgust
  • disinclination
  • dislike
  • disliking
  • displeasure
  • disrelish
  • dissatisfaction
  • distaste
  • enemy
  • enmity
  • execrate
  • execration
  • foe
  • friction
  • hate
  • hatred
  • horror
  • hostility
  • ill feeling
  • ill will
  • indifference
  • loathe
  • loathing
  • malevolence
  • malice
  • mislike
  • neglect
  • odium
  • opposition
  • rage
  • rancor
  • repellency
  • repugnance
  • repulsion
  • resentment
  • revulsion
  • scorn
  • spite
  • unfriendliness
  • venom

Conclusion

The definition of love is a strong feeling of deep affection or emotional attachment. The word love can also refer to sexual passion or sexual desire. Love can be a noun or a verb in numerous different contexts. 

Have you ever felt love for another person, and in what way? 

Sources:

  1. Love synonyms – 1 798 Words and Phrases for Love | Power Thesaurus  
  2. Love antonyms – 850 Opposites of Love | Power Thesaurus 
  3. Love | Nice Translator 
  4. Love Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com