affections

Noun

affection (countable and uncountable, plural affections)

1. The act of affecting or acting upon.
2. The state of being affected, especially: a change in, or alteration of, the emotional state of a person or other animal, caused by a subjective affect (a subjective feeling or emotion), which arises in response to a stimulus which may result from either thought or perception.
3. An attribute; a quality or property; a condition.
   • A Porism is a proposition in which it is proposed to demonstrate that some one thing, or more things than one, are given, to which, as also to each of innumerable other things, not given indeed, but which have the same relation to those which are given, it is to be shewn that there belongs some...1756, Robert Simson, Euclid's Elements
4. An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.
   • Our affections for wild animals are distributed very unevenly. Take insects.2013 August 23, Mark Cocker, “Wings of Desire”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 11, page 26

   Synonyms:

   attachment, fondness, kindness, love, passion, tenderness

5. A feeling of love or strong attachment; a feeling of enjoyable and comforting fondness.
   • I have a lot of affection for my little sister.
6. (archaic) A disease; a morbid symptom; a malady.
   • a pulmonary affection1834, Samuel George Morton, Illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption

See all 7 meanings of affection