Word.ws English Dictionary

dilection

dilection noun: love; loving kindness.

Noun

dilection (plural dilections)

  1. (dated) love; loving kindness
    • These words mine, and thine, proceeded first of iniquitie, because men did not observe mutual and natural dilection.1554, Dr. Martin [ Stephen Gardiner? ], Treatise on the Marriage of Priestes
    • And this was the first testimony of the infinite dilection of God towards man.1586, John Harmar, transl., Master Bezaes sermons
  2. (dated) choice

Examples of dilection in a sentence

  • A bone not far from his heart, to put him in mind of dilection and love to the woman.1614, John King, Vitis Palatina:
  • So free is Christ's dilection, that the grand condition of our felicity is our belief.1648, Robert Boyle, Discourse on Seraphick Love, published 1660

Forms of dilection

pluraldilections

Origin of dilection

From Latin dilectio (“dilection”). See diligent.

Questions about dilection

What does dilection mean?
Dilection means love; loving kindness.
How do you use dilection in a sentence?
A bone not far from his heart, to put him in mind of dilection and love to the woman.
What part of speech is dilection?
Dilection is a noun.
What is the plural of dilection?
The plural of dilection is dilections.

Words near dilection in the dictionary

  1. dildon'ts
  2. dildonics
  3. dildos
  4. dilead
  5. Dilectae
  6. dilection
  7. dilections
  8. DiLello
  9. DiLellos
  10. dilemma
  11. dilemmalike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dilection (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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