Word.ws English Dictionary

affaire

affaire is the obsolete spelling of affair.

Meaning of affair

Noun

affair (plural affairs)

  1. (in plural, often) Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.
    • a difficult affair to manage
    Synonyms:
    matter, concern
  2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely.
    • an affair of honor
  3. An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.
  4. A material object (vaguely designated).
    • He used a hook-shaped affair with a long handle to unlock the car.
  5. An adulterous relationship, chiefly of a married person. (from affaire de cœur, affair of the heart).
    • When Martin's wife found out about his affair with her best friend, she asked for a divorce.
  6. An otherwise illicit romantic relationship, such as with someone who is not one's regular partner (boyfriend, girlfriend).
    • Jerry's girlfriend said she wanted to go steady, but she was in an affair with one of his team-mates.

See all 9 meanings of affair

Forms of affaire

pluralaffaires

Phrases with affaire

Questions about affaire

What is affaire the obsolete spelling of?
Affaire is the obsolete spelling of affair.

Words near affaire in the dictionary

  1. affair
  2. affair baby
  3. affair of honor
  4. affair of honour
  5. affair partner
  6. affaire
  7. affaire d'honneur
  8. affaires
  9. affaires d'honneur
  10. affairette
  11. affairettes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: affaire (page history and authors); affair (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “affaire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/affaire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.