boyfriend

/ˈbɔɪˌfɹɛnd/

boyfriend noun: a male partner in an unmarried romantic relationship.

Noun

boyfriend (plural boyfriends)

A male partner in an unmarried romantic relationship.
- I was playing the drums and my boyfriend was playing the electric guitar.
- If I was your boyfriend, I’d never let you go / I can take you places you ain’t never been before.2012, “Boyfriend”, performed by Justin Bieber
A male friend.

Synonyms:

guyfriend, buddy, pal, mate, babber, billy, bredrin, bruv, bud, buddo
(attributive, often) A style of women's clothing that draws heavily from corresponding men's garments.

Verb

boyfriend (third-person singular simple present boyfriends, present participle boyfriending, simple past and past participle boyfriended)

(ambitransitive, informal, rare) To be a boyfriend to (someone).
- 3- the cutie pie, shadiah , the turk beaut who impoverished actor @imad Hemdi (of ikhmeem, upper egypt) when married together, who cost fereed il etresh his voice, when boyfriending her, who now is miT TereHa=veiled ( thanks 2 sheikh she@rawi ) :1996 February 23, Al Aab - CNED/W94, “. dr. love”, in soc.culture.egyptian (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Dec 2025
- That says the boyfriend WAS an NPC Promoter/Judge AT THE TIME he was 'boyfriending' her, and she was SIXTEEN.2001 April 20, Nick Gravel, “Julie Strain flicks?”, in alt.amazon-women.admirers (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Dec 2025
(ambitransitive, informal, rare) To have (someone) as a boyfriend.
- Rina is out boyfriending, God help us. The last one she brought back was terrible.1989, Philip Callow, “Epilogue”, in The Painter’s Confessions, London: Allison & Busby, published 1991, →ISBN, page 285
- Her husband hurries home after work; her sister, if not boyfriending or tired, takes the girls and Max on subsidized trips to the Rubins’ favorite café, where they are petted and given mugs of cappuccino foam.2007, Charlotte Mendelson, chapter 5, in When We Were Bad, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, pages 52–53

boyfriend meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

boyfriend in Hindi

male partner in a romantic relationship: बॉयफ़्रेंड bŏyfreṇḍ, प्रेमी premī, साथी sāthī, प्रिय priya, पुरुष मित्र puruṣ mitra, मित्र mitra

boyfriend in Tamil

காதலன், நண்பன், சிநேகிதன், தோழன்

boyfriend in Marathi

male partner in a romantic relationship: बॉयफ्रेंड bŏyaphreṇḍa
male friend: मित्र mitra

boyfriend in Urdu

male partner in a romantic relationship: بای فْرینْڈ bāī frenḍ, بوائے فَرینْڈ boe farenḍ, حَبِیب habīb

More languagesFewer languages

boyfriend in Bengali: প্রেমিক premik
boyfriend in Telugu: స్నేహితుడు snēhituḍu, ప్రియుడు priyuḍu
boyfriend in Malayalam: സഖാവ് sakhāvŭ
boyfriend in Kannada: ಬಾಯ್ಫ್ರೆಂಡ್
boyfriend in Punjabi: ਬੁਆਏਫ੍ਰੈਂਡ
boyfriend in Gujarati: બોયફ્રેન્ડ
boyfriend in Odia: ବଯ଼ଫ୍ରେଣ୍ଡ
boyfriend in Tagalog: nobyo
boyfriend in Arabic: خَلِيل ḵalīl, رَفِيق rafīq, حَبِيب ḥabīb, صَدِيق ṣadīq
boyfriend in Malay: teman lelaki, kawan lelaki
boyfriend in Thai: แฟน fɛɛn
boyfriend in Vietnamese: bạn trai, người yêu
boyfriend in Myanmar: ရည်းစား rany:ca:

Examples of boyfriend in a sentence

Referring to someone as your boyfriend or girlfriend suggests several things about your relationship, said Leah Carey, a sex and relationship coach and podcast host of “Good Girls Talk About Sex.”2024 October 24, Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, “More straight couples are calling each other partner. Here’s why”, in CNN, archived from the...
*I* married exactly 4 years after I began "boyfriending" with Silvana, and my 2nd daughter Natalia was born exactly 31 years after me :-PPPPPPPPPP2002 January 17, Alberto Monteiro, “My son and the future...”, in bit.listserv.down-syn (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Dec 2025:
Also, boyfriending him seems to do absolutely nothing to deter him.2008, Dana Reinhardt, How to Build a House: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Wendy Lamb Books, →ISBN, page 104:

All 40 example sentences with boyfriend

Synonyms of boyfriend

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of boyfriend

Forms of boyfriend

Noun
plural	boyfriends
alternative Internet	boifriend
alternative form (dated)	boy friend
alternative form (dated)	boy-friend
Verb
third-person singular present	boyfriends
present participle	boyfriending
past participle	boyfriended
past	boyfriended

Plural of boyfriend: boyfriends

Origin of boyfriend

From boy + friend.

Phrases with boyfriend

Questions about boyfriend

What does boyfriend mean?: Boyfriend means a male partner in an unmarried romantic relationship.
What is boyfriend in Hindi?: Boyfriend in Hindi is बॉयफ़्रेंड (bŏyfreṇḍ), प्रेमी (premī), साथी (sāthī). See Boyfriend meaning in Hindi.
How do you use boyfriend in a sentence?: Referring to someone as your boyfriend or girlfriend suggests several things about your relationship, said Leah Carey, a sex and relationship coach and podcast host of “Good Girls Talk About Sex.”
What part of speech is boyfriend?: Boyfriend can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce boyfriend?: Boyfriend is pronounced /ˈbɔɪˌfɹɛnd/ (US).
What is the plural of boyfriend?: The plural of boyfriend is boyfriends.

Words near boyfriend in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: boyfriend (page history and authors); boyfriend (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ప్రియుడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); സഖാവ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); boyfriend (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); boyfriend (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); boyfriend (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); boyfriend (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-boyfriend.ogg.

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